Reuben Kadish (1913-1992) was born on January 29, 1913 in Chicago. He had two brothers, Frank, two years younger, and Morris, four years younger. His parents, Samuel Kadish and Ida Saks, immigrated from Lithuania in 1910. At the age of seven, Reuben and family moved to the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles for the father’s health. Sam was a fine painter and supported the family as a professional wood grainer. In 1925 they visited relatives in New York and Reuben saw paintings by Courbet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He decided right then and there that he wanted to be an artist.
He was an outgoing teenager and carried a sketchpad with him everywhere. In high school he got in trouble disseminating flyers protesting the US Marine presence in Nicaragua. In 1930 he was a student at the Otis Art Institute where he befriended artists Phillip Goldstein (later Philip Guston) and Jackson Pollock. Pollock would soon move to New York but Kadish and Guston set up a studio together and studied with Lorser Feitelson. It was with Feitelson that they learned of the classic Renaissance style and were exposed to elements of the new style of surrealism.
In 1932 the left wing Mexican muralist, David Alfaro Siqueiros, came to Los Angeles to teach and paint murals. Kadish assisted Siqueiros with the mural painting, Tropical America. Kadish and Guston painted a communist inspired mural for the John Reed Club of Los Angeles. Siqueiros saw the mural and was impressed to invite them to paint a large fresco in the Michoacan Museum of Morelia, Mexico.
Struggle Against War and Fascism was completed in 1935 with the help of writer friend Jules Langsner. It depicted evil hooded villains (inspired by the KKK) terrorizing and murdering victims in a dungeon. Bold figures and dramatic placement from Siqueiros influenced this huge mural. Kadish and Guston collaborated on a more classical themed mural in Duarte, California in mid 1935 called Progress of Man and History of Medicine. The Italian Renaissance strongly influenced the figure style and composition.
In September 1935, Guston moved to New York and Kadish moved to San Francisco. He submitted more than 20 mural proposals to the Works Progress Administration of San Francisco. All were rejected but one, Dissertation on Alchemy was painted on the wall of the Chemistry building of the San Francisco State College in 1937. As the war effort progressed he worked in the shipyards in the bay area. He, along with a dozen other artists, was drafted into the army as a corresponding artist recording the events of WWII.
He spent 1942 and 1943 in India and Burma painting horrific scenes of the civilians. It changed his whole outlook on art and life. Upon his return to the U.S., Reuben decided to move to New York. He had trouble finding work and a housing. After ten years working as a dairyman, he became a sculptor and taught art history at Cooper Union for thirty years. His style evolved into Expressionism.
(Photo: Reuben Kadish in 1946)
Leave a Reply