Jólan Gross-Bettelheim (1900–1972) was born in Hungary, but lived in the United States from 1925-1956. She studied painting at the Budapest School of Fine Art in 1919, followed by studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna and the Akademie der Bildenden Künst in Berlin. Gross-Bettelheim then studied in Paris at the Académie de Grande Chaumière between 1922-24. She married a Hungarian-born radiologist, Frigyes Bettelheim, and settled in Cleveland by 1925. Her studies in Ohio commenced at the Cleveland School of Art with modernist painter Henry Keller. She and her husband relocated to New York City in 1938. As a Communist, Gross-Bettelheim was a member of the John Reed Club, as well as the American Artists’ Congress. She contributed to leftist publications such as New Masses and the Daily Worker. Her work was exhibited in Chicago, New York, Ohio, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington D.C. throughout the 1930s and 40s. She returned to Hungary after 1956 and died in Budapest in 1972.
Cleveland and the WPA
Gross-Bettelheim worked in Cleveland at a time when printmaking was flourishing. It was a time when lithography was seen as a viable art form, rather than being limited to commercial use. Interest in printmaking was bolstered by art organizations that were founded in the 1920s. And the Cleveland Print Makers (CPM) was formed in 1930 by artist and teacher Kálmán Kubinyi. It engaged in numerous activities to expand exposure for Cleveland printmakers, with the goal of increasing the sales of their works. Its most ambitious activity was the Print Mart or Market during which artists opened a gallery to sell works to the general public. The Print Market featured America Today in November 1936, an exhibition that was held in thirty U.S. cities simultaneously. The show included 100 prints created by artists from the American Artists’ Congress, including Gross-Bettelheim. Gross-Bettelheim also was commissioned to create a print for the CPM’s Print-a-Month series, a subscription for one print per month by Cleveland and some nonresident artists.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP) had a graphic arts division of which printmaking was a part. A graphic arts workshop was set up in Cleveland as a part of the WPA, operating officially as Graphic Arts Project No. 8048 from December 1935 – 1943, being most productive in 1936-37. Gross-Bettelheim produced prints for the WPA graphics workshop, as well. The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) sponsored a traveling exhibition, Fifty Prints of the Year, which included work by Gross-Bettelheim.
Gross-Bettelheim’s prints explores the darkness of the Depression, employing a cubist style that heightens the drama of cityscapes and the industrial landscape. Sabine Kretzschmar describes Gross-Bettelheim as “the purest modernist” amongst Cleveland printmakers, reflecting the influence of German expressionism, constructivism, and cubism.
Her work explored social and political issues. The plight of unemployment is addressed in her print, In the Employment Office (ca. 1936, lithograph) and racism in Workers Meeting (Scottsboro Boys) (ca. 1935, drypoint).
The stark black and white images convey a sense of humanity being oppressed by the scale of industry. For example, Gross-Bettelheim’s ca. 1940 lithograph Assembly Line portrays a claustrophobic space filled with workers and a haunting image of lines of gas masks on a factory assembly line. Her 1936 lithograph Civilization at the Crossroads (Fascism II) depicts the rising threat of Fascism in Europe.
Assembly Line, ca. 1940, lithograph on paper, 11 1/2 x 9 7/8 in. (29.2 x 25.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Beggar, ca. 1937, drypoint, 7 1/8 x 4 ¾ inches (18.1x12 cm). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
Beneath the Bridge, ca. 1935, lithograph on paper, 13 7/8 x 9 7/8 in. (35.3 x 25.2 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Blast Furnace, ca. 1935-39, lithograph, 14 x 10-1/4 in. Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH.
Blast Furnace with Telephone Poles, ca. 1935-39, drypoint, 8-3/4 x 7 in. Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH.
Bridge, ca. 1935, lithograph on paper,11 3/4 x 15 5/8 in. (29.8 x 39.8 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Bridge #1, ca. 1940, lithograph on off-white wove paper, 359 x 265 mm (image); 435 x 300 mm (sheet), The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Bridge Cables II, ca. 1940, lithograph on off-white wove paper, Image: 13 11/16 x 9 7/8 in. (34.8 x 25.1 cm), Sheet: 16 7/16 x 11 7/8 in. (41.8 x 30.2 cm) Mat: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm), Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection.
Civilization at the Crossroads (Fascism II), 1936, lithograph 12¾ x 10 in (32.4 x 25.4 cm), Reba and Dave Williams Collection.
Dilapidated Section, 1935–39, lithograph, 9.75 x 11.75 in., Collection of Lakewood Board of Education, OH.
Elevator, n.d., etching, 22.5x18 cm (8 9/10 x 71/10 in), Reba and Dave Williams Collection.
Factory Houses, ca. 1935-39, lithograph, 13-1/4 in. x 9-5/8 in. Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland OH.
Fascism, lithograph, Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
Gates and Bridges, 1936, lithograph on paper, 11 9/16 in. x 8 9/16 in. (29.3 cm x 21.8 cm), University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI.
Home Front, c. 1943, lithograph, 406 x 305 mm, Collection of Bette and Lyle Sarnevitz.
In the Employment Office, 1935–39, lithograph, 11 x 8.5 in., Collection of Case Western Reserve University, Kevin Smith Library, Cleveland, OH.
Industrial Scene, 1936, lithograph, 14 x 10.25 in., Collection of Lakewood Board of Education, OH.
Industrial Valley, ca. 1937, drypoint on paper, 13 in. x 10 in. (33.02 cm x 25.4 cm), Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH.
Landscape, 1929, drypoint, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
New York, 1930's (under elevated tracks), photograph, gelatin silver print, 9 x 6.3 cm, Grinnell College Art Collection, Grinnell, IA.
New York, 1930's (view of elevator from under bridge), photograph, gelatin silver print, 9 x 6.3 cm, Grinnell College Art Collection, Grinnell, IA.
Power Transmission Line, n.d., lithograph, 11 1/15 x 9 3/10 in (28.5x23.5 cm), Reba and Dave Williams Collection.
(Railroad) Gate and Bridges, ca. 1936, lithograph, 11 7/16 x 8 11/16 in (29 x 22 cm), Ohio Art Program, long term loan to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
Smeltery, 1949, lithograph, 17 9/16 x 113 3/10 in (44.6 x 36.3 cm), Grinnell College Art Collection, Grinnell, IA.
Under the High Level Bridge, ca. 1932, drypoint, 9 7/16 x 7 in (24 x17.7 cm). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
Unemployment Office, 1936, lithograph on off-white wove paper, 281 x 217 mm (image); 330 x 253 mm (sheet), The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Untitled 1945, lithograph, 18 13/16 x 14 5/8 in. (47.80 x 37.20 cm), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
The War Machine, n.d., lithograph, 13 4/5 x 9 4/5 in. (35 x 24.8 cm), Reba and Dave Williams Collection. Also in the collection of Grinnell College Art Collection as “Workers of the World [Flags] The War Machine.”
Workers’ Meeting (Scottsboro Boys), ca. 1935, drypoint, 8 ½ x 6 7/8 in. (21.6 x 17.5 cm), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
Yard, ca. 1935-39, lithograph, 12-3/4 x 9 in., Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH.
Yard with Poles, ca. 1935-39, lithograph, 13 x 9-1/4 in. Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH.
Young Negro Worker, 1931, drypoint, 67/8 x 5 3/8 in. (17.60 x 13.80 cm), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.
May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art 1927-1937 (annual exhibition) [except for 1933]
Kokoon Club, 1932, first solo exhibition
American Today, 1936
American Artists’ Conference Exhibition, 1938
Artists for Victory, 1942, at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
Artists for Victory, 1943 [show held in 36 museums simultaneously]
America in the War, 1943
Library of Congress annual print shows, Washington, DC 1943-1950
Annual Exhibition of Northwest Printmakers, Seattle Art Museum, 1944-1953
Durand-Ruel Galleries in Manhattan, 1945
Art Institute of Chicago, 2 watercolor shows
Modernist Abstraction in American Prints, Laguna Art Museum, 1992
Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: The American Prints, Print and Drawing Study Room of the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa April 27-May 21, 2001
Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: An American Printmaker in an Age of Progress” Eisenberg Gallery in the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick., NJ Mar 19, 2011 - Jul 31, 2011
