Modernism in the New City

Link to article about the life and work of Sam Himmelfarb

Sam Himmelfarb was born 1906 in Russia (Latvia.) His early years were spent in Milwaukee. After studying in art schools in Milwaukee (Wisconsin School of Fine Arts) (StateTeachers College) and Madison (University of Wisconsin 1924), he went to New York and studied at the National Academy of Design and Art Students League. He painted in New York and also worked for architectural firms there. He returned briefly to Milwaukee and taught and painted for the WPA. In 1937 he began a design firm in Chicago, while continuing his studio work as a painter. Sam Himmelfarb's painting career began in the 1920’s with realist figure paintings in a dark palette, developing through the years until his death in 1976 into figurative abstraction in a high key.