Eugenie Schein (May 3, 1905U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007; U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI)-April 15, 2003) was an American artist and dancerThe Art News April 01–14, 1941: Vol 40 Iss 4. Brant Publications, Incorporated, 1941. archived version who immigrated from Austria in 1913. She was known for her abstract paintings of dancers from around the world and often found her subjects during her travels with the Martha Graham Dance Company. She trained under the head of the modern danceJackson, Naomi M. Author. Converging Movements Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y. Lebanon : University Press of New England, 2000. archived version movement, Martha Graham."Newspaper Name Index, USA, Canada, and Australia - Eugenie Schein" - The Boston Herald, Sunday, May 10, 1936 - Accessed April 7, 2024 In the 1930s, her art was displayed at the Midtown Galleries and the Uptown Gallery in New York City, and later in Hamburgo, Mexico, Havana, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Miami Beach Art Center in Florida.Art News 1947-09: Vol 46 Iss 7. Brant Publications, Incorporated, 1947. archived version
Early life and education Eugenie emigrated through Ellis Island from Austria with her father, Adolph, mother, Frieda, and four siblings Bertha, Selma, Fred and Emmanuel.1920 United States Federal Census Her family was Jewish, and in 1945 she joined 1700 other professors in signing a petition supporting a Jewish national home in Palestine.A Petition to the President of the United States. 1945. She received her Bachelors of Art Degree in Fine Arts at Hunter CollegeThe Art Digest 1947-09-15: Vol 21 Iss 20. Arts Communications Group, L.P., 1947. archived version in New York, where she later became an instructor in physical education and modern dance.Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation 1956-01: Vol 27 Iss 1. Taylor & Francis Ltd., 1956. archived version She received her Masters Degree in Fine Art at Columbia UniversityColumbia University. Catalogue. New York, 1897. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/catalogue1927colu. in New York City. She also studied painting and sculpture at the Art Students LeagueThe Art Digest 1941-03-15: Vol 15 Iss 12. Arts Communications Group, L.P., 1941. archived version and at the University of New Mexico's Field School in 1940. Her preferred media consisted of oils, acrylics, and watercolors. A catalog was issued of her monotypes by the Miami Museum of Modern Art.
She traveled to Havana, Cuba, in 1932, to England, Scotland and Italy by 1936, to Mexico by 1937, and Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic, in 1938.
Career Schein was one of 83 sponsors of the first National Dance Congress and festival that took place May 18, 1936, in New York City in the Theresa L. Kaufmann Theatre at Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street. She was a founding member of the Dance Teachers Advisory Committee in New York. In 1936, her pictures were exhibited in San Francisco as part of the Mrs. Beatrice Laufman collection, along with Isabel Bishop, Paul Cadmus, Marsden Hartley, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Betty B. Parsons.
She left New York in 1954, not long after testifying in hearings against three faculty suspected of Communist Party Membership at Hunter College.Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI Silvermaster File. archived version Accessed 8 Apr. 2024. She moved to Miami, where her brothers Emmanuel and Fred owned the Bombay Hotel in Miami Beach. She was a Physical Education and dance instructor at the University of Miami and the Greater Miami Jewish Community Center. She continued to exhibit her paintings in later life, primarily in galleries in Miami, Florida. She was a member of the National Association of Women Artists and the local chapter president of the National Artists Equity Association in 1964. She died in Florida in 2003.
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