Ralph Wickiser

During his studies at Eastern Illinois University a reputable artist from Brown County, Paul Turner Sargent (1880–1946) became a mentor to Wickiser and taught him a great deal about painting.

The two would often paint outdoors together.

Ralph Lewanda Wickiser was an American artist, who was born 1910 and died 1998.

He is most notable for painting in the styles of both Abstraction and representation, and for synthesizing the two in his own innovative style.

Wickiser was born in Greenup, Illinois.

His earliest known paintings are watercolor landscapes from his second grade class, which showed notable talent for such a young artist.

At the age of 18, Wickiser studied life drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago Illinois, but due to the Depression, he soon became unable to support himself and was forced to return to Greenup.

At his mother's suggestion, he enrolled at Eastern Illinois University and earned his B.A. there.

He expressed frustration at the lack of modern art education in America at that time.

After earning his BA in 1934, Wickiser went to New York to visit Columbia University.

He was awarded a residency at the Tiffany Foundation in Oyster Bay, where he stayed to paint for the summer.

He exhibited at the Grand Central Art Galleries in April 1934, and one of his paintings was featured and reviewed in ARTnews.

This was a major turning point for Wickiser.

Continuing to work in two styles, back and forth between abstraction and representation, Wickiser exhibited his paintings at multiple venues, including Rockefeller Center in New York.

It was at Eastern Illinois University that Wickiser met Jane Ann Bisson, who became his wife in 1936.

Also in 1936, he began teaching at the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge while also studying for a Ph.D. in philosophy at Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.

His work was included in a traveling exhibition called "A New Southern Group" that was shown at many museums, including the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.

In the summer of 1939, Wickiser first went to Woodstock, New York to study color Lithography with Emil Ganso.

He fell in love with the Catskill Mountains as well as the artist colony of Woodstock.

After that, he and Jane returned to Woodstock each summer.

There he met Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi, who became a good friend.

Kuniyoshi threw a party for Ralph and Jane at his house, introducing them to many artist friends.

Ralph invited Kuniyoshi and Paul Burlin to LSU to lecture to students.

While in Woodstock, Wickiser established friendships with Arnold Blanch, Paul Burlin, Rollin Crampton, Doris Lee, Eddie Millman, Milton Avery, Philip Guston, and Barnett Newman.

He affectionately referred to Newman as "Barney."

In the summer of 1940, Wickiser traveled to Guadalajara and Taxco in Mexico, where they visited with Diego Rivera.

Jane said of Rivera, "He was so ugly he was beautiful."

That summer Wickiser painted a watercolor series in plein air in the marketplaces of Guadalajara and Taxco.

In 1941, Wickiser was named Chair of the Art Department at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

They later had three children, Eric in 1942, Lydia in 1945, and Walter in 1952.

During the years of the war, he enlisted in the Navy and was stationed in Washington, D.C. In 1942 he had exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Museum, and the Oakland Museum of California.

The Delgado Museum in New Orleans, (now the New Orleans Museum of Art), granted him a solo show in 1943.

After that, he had shows at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio (1944) and the Associated American Artist Gallery in New York (1946).

In 1947 his work was shown at the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, and ten of his color lithographs were reproduced in the article "The American Highway" in The Lamp, published by Standard Oil, New Jersey.

In 1948-49, Ford Motor Company commissioned Ralph to do a watercolor series for their magazine, The Ford Times.

The Library of Congress showed his work in 1948 at the Annual Print Exhibition.

He continued to paint abstraction, figures, landscapes, and combinations of these, striving to reconcile them in his mind.

In 1949, Wickiser bought land in Woodstock and built a house and studio.

In 1950, he held a conference at the Woodstock Artists Association, which featured talks by Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.

In 1951, Wickiser hosted the Fourth Annual Conference on art at the same venue, including speakers Herman Cherry, Franz Kline, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, and Ben Shahn.