Methodist Temple, Chicago
Charles Turzak (1899-1986), Methodist Temple, Chicago, c. 1930, woodcut, signed, titled and numbered (16/50), from the edition of 50. Reference: Turzak 22. In very good condition, with margins on a very thin hand made Japan paper, 8 1/2 x 13 1/4, the sheet 16 x 11 1/4 inches; archival mounting.
A fine bright impression. Printed on a cream/tan paper in a black ink.
Turzak noted in his catalogues that this print was cut on bass wood, and that this was the “view from my studio window – 6th floor.”
Turzak was a painter, printmaker, illustrator and designer. While a high school senior he won a national cartoon contest sponsored by Purina Mills. With the (relative) notoriety and riches he achieved through the contest he was able to get into (and pay for) the Art Institute of Chicago in 1920. After graduating in 1924 Turzak stayed in Chicago as a free-lance and commercial artist.
He gained a measure of serious fame during the Depression, participating in various federal arts programs; his modernist versions of Chicago sights created during those years are particularly valued today.
After the Depression he made more commercial art, then in his later years worked again as a painter and printmaker. His art is represented in the collections of the Library of Congress, Yale University Art Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, the Illinois State Historical Library, and other public collections.
Detail