River Front

Harshly contrasting light values depict a factory of some kind, comprised of buildings, machinery, smokestacks, and mounds of an unidentifiable substance. The black & white lithograph’s upper third is framed by billowing smoke, the bottom portion by raw materials and the plant creating all the pollution. In the center is another, brightly lit pile of raw materials and seemingly our only glimpse outside of the factory. Weiner’s title is darkly ironic, for there’s no river to be seen... just this and other factories depending upon the waterway for transportation. The artist also created other visions of Great Lakes industry with sharply different tones, like his colorful Spring and Industry (1939).

About the Artist

There is conflicting information about the life of this Federal Art Project lithographer. It’s agreed that he was born 1910 in Chicago, studied at the Art Institute in that city, and shared studio space with fellow lithographers Max Kahn, Misch Kohn, and Eleanor Coen—a less structured arrangement than the centralized Graphic Arts Division in New York City. Carl Zigrosser suggests that “most of the graphic work was apprentice work, that is to say, steps toward the mastery of technique and méitier,” although to be kinder the group was very experimental and ambitious. His work appeared at group shows in the city (1, 2, 3), and at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York (Jewell). At this point the narrative diverges. Who Was Who in American Art holds that Weiner “committed suicide after 1940, perhaps in Chicago” and the Metropolitan Museum of Art still gives his life dates as 1910-1940. Most other institutions, however, have Weiner relocating to California until his death in 1964. If so, then a household under that name and his wife, Grace, were living in Burbank as of 1950 (US Census). That Isadore Weiner gave his occupation as freelance artist and packaging designer—still adjacent to lithography, but perhaps in a more commercial vein. The problem with this supposition is that of an apparent father living next door with a different name than Chicago census records. It seems safest to state only that Weiner was born in Chicago, and produced challenging lithographs for the Federal Art Project. 21 works at Art Institute of Chicago. 8 works at Smithsonian American Art Museum. 9 works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 5 images at GSA.

Works Consulted: Carl Zigrosser, Misch Kohn (American Federation of Arts, 1961) Link; Peter Hastings Falk, ed. Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1974, vol. 3 (Sound View, 1999): 3501; 1950 US Census for Burbank, Los Angeles Co., California d.E.D. #62-79 Link; Edward Alden Jewell, “American Art at the World’s Fair,” New York Times 26 May 1940: 149 Link.

Weiner, Isadore (1910 - ?)

Cooper, Ken (description and biography)

Helquist, Morgan (photography)

New Deal Museum, Mount Morris NY

Object #FA 1553

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Lithograph on paper

15 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.