The Repair Man

About the Artist

Leonard Pytlak (1910–1998) was an American serigrapher, lithographer, painter, teacher, and lecturer born in Newark, New Jersey. He studied at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art before continuing his education at the Art Students League in New York, where he was likely introduced to printmaking. Pytlak became an active member of the Graphic Arts Division of the New York City Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1941, producing prints and contributing to public art initiatives. Under the WPA/FAP, he completed a mural for Greenpoint Hospital in Brooklyn and developed a body of work that reflected everyday urban life in New York City. Pytlak was a founding member and twice president of the National Serigraph Society and was also affiliated with the Artists League of America, Audubon Artists, and the Philadelphia Color Print Society. His lithographs from the mid-1930s to early 1940s often depicted New York scenes such as the Bowery and Central Park. In 1943, he contributed the screenprint They Serve on All Fronts to the exhibition “America in the War,” organized by Artists for Victory. The work, portraying a frontline medical surgery unit, won second prize in the serigraphy category. Throughout his career, Pytlak exhibited widely, including at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he received a prize in 1942, as well as at other major institutions. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1941. In addition to his artistic production, Pytlak dedicated many years to teaching drawing, painting, and screen printing. During the 1960s, he led a private class for students with disabilities through the New York State Rehabilitation Department. In 1982, the Craft Students League Gallery in New York mounted a retrospective of his fifty years of printmaking, recognizing his contributions to American graphic arts. 108 works at Philadelphia Museum of Art. 22 works at National Gallery of Art. 8 works at The Smithsonian American Art Museum. 1 work at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. 4 works at Boston Museum of Fine Arts. 3 works at Brooklyn Museum. 24 works at Metropolitan Museum of Art.