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Loop Alley
— Modernist Chicago Cityscape, WPA
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Charles Turzak
Loop Alley
— Modernist Chicago Cityscape, WPA1939
1939
$3,800
£2,871.75
€3,298.72
CA$5,344.98
A$5,658.94
CHF 3,062.46
MX$67,634.75
NOK 38,173.15
SEK 34,907.99
DKK 24,637.23
About the Item
Charles Turzak, 'Loop Alley (Chicago)', color woodcut, edition c. 25, c. 1935. Signed and titled in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, with fresh colors, on cream wove Japan paper. The sheet trimmed, with margins (1/2 to 1 3/8 inch); tape stains from prior hinging in the upper left and right sheet edges, away from the image, otherwise in very good condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed.
Image size 11 x 8 3/4 inches; sheet size 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches.
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
One of a series of four color woodcuts entitled 'Chicago Moods In Color', created by the artist for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Very scarce.
ABOUT THE SUBJECT IMAGE
'The Loop' is one of Chicago's three downtown community areas, bounded by the Chicago River to the north and west, Harrison Street to the south, and Lake Michigan to the east. At the iconic center of the city, it contains the tallest of Chicago's skyscrapers. The Loop also holds a world-class public art collection in the form of giant street-side statues by many of the 20th century's most famous sculptors. The Loop initially got its name from the looping route of streetcars that served as the transit hub of early downtown Chicago, but the name has come to be defined by the modern era's looping route of elevated train tracks, serving seven CTA lines, which ensures the continued prominence of the area as the center of Chicago's working world. Despite the gradual northwards shift in the city's center with increasing suburbanization, all tracks lead there. Accordingly, the Loop remains the most attractive location in the city for major businesses and most of the city's visitors.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Charles Turzak, born in Streator, Illinois, was the third child and only son of Czechoslovakian immigrant parents. His father, a coal miner, worked long hours, leaving the young Turzak with numerous household responsibilities. Amid these demands, he found early creative expression in the meticulous carving of miniature animals from peach pits—an activity that foreshadowed the precision and patience that would later define his work as a wood engraver.
Turzak learned woodworking from a neighbor, an English cabinet maker, and soon apprenticed in violin making. He drew cartoons for his school yearbook and designed sale bills for local merchants. In 1920, he won a cartoon contest sponsored by the Purina Company in St. Louis, an award that helped fund his studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There he excelled in drawing and woodcarving and was elected to Delta Phi Delta, the national honorary art fraternity. He supported himself through freelance advertising work, insurance sales, and by teaching woodcut and wood engraving classes at the Academy of Fine Arts.
By the late 1920s, Turzak had gained recognition through the exhibition and sale of his woodcuts depicting Northwestern University and prominent Chicago landmarks, including the Water Tower, Tribune Tower, and Buckingham Fountain. These works were complemented by watercolors of industrial and urban subjects such as steel mills, harbors, boats, skylines, parks, woodlands, and still lifes. In 1929, he traveled to Europe to study the work of the Old Masters firsthand, visiting England, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and France—an experience that reinforced his commitment to strong linear design and narrative clarity. His return to the United States coincided with the onset of the Great Depression.
Turzak was among the early artists to participate in the Works Progress Administration, the Depression-era federal program created to employ artists. Under its auspices, he painted murals for the Old Chicago Main Post Office and for the post office in Lemont, Illinois. He also produced the Works Progress Administration–sponsored portfolio History of Illinois in Woodcuts (1935), a landmark series of ten prints that brought him national recognition. During this period, Turzak created a series of woodcut biographies of notable Americans. His first, Abraham Lincoln, achieved notable commercial success at the Century of Progress International Exhibition (Chicago World’s Fair, 1933–34), providing financial stability throughout much of the Depression. He later followed this with Benjamin Franklin: A Biography in Woodcuts, accompanied by text written by his wife, Florence Turzak.
In 1942, Turzak became art director of Today’s Health magazine while continuing his independent artistic practice. In 1958, he relocated to Orlando, Florida, where he remained active as an artist, producing paintings and experimenting with modernist and abstract approaches.
Turzak’s Works Progress Administration–era graphics were later reassessed in the exhibition Beyond the Surface: WPA Works of Charles Turzak, presented at the Figge Art Museum from November 11, 2011, to March 10, 2012.
Turzak’s graphic works are represented in major museum and public collections, including the Ackland Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Figge Art Museum, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Spencer Museum of Art, Western Illinois University Art Gallery, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
- Creator:Charles Turzak (1899 - 1986, American)
- Creation Year:1939
- Dimensions:Height: 10.2 in (25.91 cm)Width: 6.8 in (17.28 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Myrtle Beach, SC
- Reference Number:Seller: 1007271stDibs: LU532311716992
Charles Turzak
Charles Turzak was born in Streator, Illinois. He was a printmaker, a painter, a muralist, a teacher and a graphic artist. Turzak received his art education at the Art Institute of Chicago and continued his studies abroad. He won wide recognition as an artist/author and illustrator through his woodcut biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin as well as other American Statesmen. Charles Turzak's work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Missouri, Library of Congress and the University of Illinois to mention a few. He is listed in the Who's Who in 20th Century American Artists. Over the years his designs and illustrations for national publishers have brought Turzak many honors for his originality and creativity.
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