Sylvia Fein

Artist Details

• First Name Sylvia
• Maiden Name Fein
• Surname Fein
• Spouse’s Full Name William “Bill” Scheuber (1918-May 1, 2013 Martinez, California); married May 30, 1942 (met when she was 19 years old); served in WWII as an Air Force cryptographer
• Names and Birth Years of Children Heidi
• Birth Date November 20, 1919
• Birth Place Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Residence(s) 1943-1946: near Ajijic, Mexico
  
  1946: Mexico City, Mexico
  
  1947: Richmond, California
  
  Martinez, California
• Categories Drawing, Egg Tempera, Painter, Watercolorist
• Training 1938-1942: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
  1951: MFA, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, California
  
• Relevant Travel Mexico
  
   
• Exhibitions History 1941: 13^th Annual Exhibition of Student Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
  
  1941: 8^th Annual Wisconsin Salon of Art,
  
  1942: 9^th Annual Wisconsin Salon of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin: Ladies with Many Faces
  
  1942: 1^st Annual Racine and Vicinity Show, Wustum Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
  
  1942: 14^th Annual Exhibition of Student Art, University of Wisconsin: Lady in a Landscape with Animals
  
  1942: Sylvia Fein and John Wilde Exhibition, Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
  
  1942: 29^th Annual Exhibition of Wisconsin Art, Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  
  1943: 30^th Annual Exhibition of Wisconsin Art, Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  
  March 11-April 25, 1943: Forty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago and Vicinity Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Lady with the White Knight
  
  1943: 22^nd International Exhibition of Water Colors, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois:
  
  1943: : Whitney Annual exhibitions
  
  1943: Perls Galleries, New York, New York
  
  1944: Villa Montecarlo, Chapala, Mexico
  
  1944: University of Utah group show from Perls Gallery
  
  January 27-March 5, 1944: Forty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago and Vicinity Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois:   Proserpine
  
  Springfield Museum of Art Annual, Springfield, Massachusetts
  
  State University of Iowa show from Perls Gallery
  
  1944: Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Painting, New York, New York
  
  1944: 4^th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Richmond, Virginia
  
  Villa Montecarlo, Chapala, Mexico
  
  1945: Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors & Drawings, Whitney Museum of American Painting, New York, New York
  
  1946: Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Painting, New York, New York
  
  1946: Paintings of the Year 3^rd Annual, National Academy of Design, New York, New York
  
  1946: Perls Galleries, New York, New York [solo]
  
  1947: 57^th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Sheldon Memorial Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska
  
  1947: 34^th Annual of Contemporary American Painting, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
  
  1948: Wisconsin State Centennial Exhibition of Contemporary Wisconsin Art, Layton Art Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  
  1949: Drawing and Print Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California
  1957: 57 Small Paintings of the San Francisco Bay Region, Feingarten Galleries, San Francisco, California [solo]
  
  1958:  Sagittarius Gallery, New York, New York [solo]
  
  1958: Lane Galleries, Los Angeles, California [solo]
  
  1959: Feingarten Galleries, San Francisco, California [solo]
  
  1959: Young Collectors Showing, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
  
  1960: 5^th Annual Diablo Pageant of Arts, Walnut Creek, California
  
  1960: Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, California [solo]
  
  1960: Kunstkabinett, Frankfurt, Germany [solo]
  
  1961: Feingarten Galleries, New York, New York [solo]
  
  1961: Brotherhood of Man, Jewish Community Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  
  1962: Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, California [solo]
  
  1962: Ruthermore Galleries, Oakland, California [solo]
  
  1963: Maxwell Art Galleries, San Francisco, California [solo]
  
  1964: Art Bank, Art Association of the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
  
  1964: Three Painters, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, California
  
  1965: Art of the Landscape, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
  
  1965: Shape of the Sea, Nicole Gallery, Berkeley [solo]
  
  1966: Bresler Galleries, Milwaukee, Wisconsin [solo]
  
  1966: Setay Gallery, Beverly Hills, California [solo]
  
  1967: Oshkosh Public Museum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin [solo]
  
  1968: Magic and Fantastic Art, Walnut Creek, California
  
  2005: With Friends: Six Magic Realists, 1940-1965, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin
  
  2007: Wondrous Life: Paintings and Drawings, Bakersfield, Art Museum, Bakersfield, California [solo]
  
  2012: In Wonderland, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
  
  January 18-February 22, 2014: Sylvia Fein: Surreal Nature, Krowswork Gallery, Oakland, California
  
  2016 - "Bats, Babes & Broccoli – Wisconsin Magic Realists," Mongerson Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
  
  November 13, 2019-March 1, 2020: Sylvia Fein/MATRIX 275, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California
• Publications Cozzolino, Robert. With friends: Six magic realists, 1940–1965. 2005 Duncan, Michael. “Sylvia Fein.” Art in America.  May 18, 2014. Opartkiettikul, Cameron. "An artist 100 years in the making," The Daily Californian. Quinn, Bridget. “Meet Sylvia Fein, One of the Las Surrealists Still Standing,” Hyperallergenic, November 20, 2019.  https://hyperallergic.com/529354/sylvia-fein-matrix-275-bampfa-berkeley/ St. Gaudens, Maurine. Emerging from the Shadows: A Survey of Women Artists Working in California, 1860-1960. vol. 2.  Schiffer Publishing, 2015.
• Memberships Midwest Surrealists
• Awards 1941: Elizabeth Waters Purchase Prize, 13^th Annual Exhibition of Student Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
  
  1941: Joseph E. Davies Purchase Prize, 8^th Annual Wisconsin Salon of Art,
  
  1942: Purchase Prize  9^th Annual Wisconsin Salon of Art, Chazen Musuem of Art, Madison, Wisconsin
  
  1942: First Prize: 14^th Annual Exhibition of Student Art, University of Wisconsin: Lady in a Landscape with Animals
  
  1942: Honorable Mention:  29^th Annual Exhibition of Wisconsin Art, Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Archive(s) Sylvia Fein Papers, 1936-2011, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
• Other Occupation(s) author: Heidi’s Horse   and First Drawings: Genesis of Visual Thinking. California: Exelrod Press, 1976.
  
           First Drawings: Genesis of Visual Thinking. California: Exelrod Press, 1992.
  
  illustrated Henry Schaefer-Simmern’s book Consciousness of Artistic Form, 2003
• Website(s) artist's website
  
  page on Wikipedia
  
  page on her on 2014 exhibit at Krowswork Gallery
  
  video of the artist talking about her career, done in 2014
  
  page on Berkeley Art Museum. Pacific Film Archive website
  
  video of the artist talking about her career
  
  her time in Ajijic, Mexico
  
  article by Michael Duncan in Art in America, 2014
  
  article by Cameron Opartkiettikul in The Daily Californian