Claire Specht Fejes (Dec 14,1920 – October 1998) was an American artist.
Early life
She born in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
to parents from Poland and Austria.
Education and career
She trained in
anatomy, stone-carving, and
sculpture at the
Newark Museum,
Newark Fine Arts School, and the Students' Art League through the
Works Progress Administration.
She married Joe Fejes in 1942 and moved with him to
Fairbanks, Alaska in 1946 where her husband took up gold mining.
Fejes sketched and painted Alaska Native people,
Inupiat and
Athabascans
Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific Co ...
. She also wrote books about her travels and life in Alaska. They had a son, Mark (also an artist), and a daughter, Yolande.
Her work is held in several museums, including the
Anchorage Museum,
Frye Art Museum
The Frye Art Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum located in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1952 to house the collection of Charles and Emma Frye and has since grown to include rotating temporary ex ...
, the
University of Michigan Museum of Art, the
Blanton Museum of Art, the
Anchorage Museum, the
University of Alaska Museum of the North
The University of Alaska Museum of the North is a cultural and historical museum on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.
Mission
The museum's mission is to acquire, conserve, investigate, and interpret specimens and collections relating to ...
, and the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to:
*National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra
*National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred
*National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C.
*National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...
. Her artwork is also on display at the Fairbanks North Start Borough Public Library.
Later life
In her last decade, Fejes spent her winters in
New York City and
San Diego, and her summers in Fairbanks.
Bibliography
* ''Cold Starry Night: An Alaskan Memoir.'' 1996. Epicenter Press.
* ''Enuk My Son''. 1969.
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint with editorial independence. It is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.Random House, Inc. Datamonitor Company Profiles Authority: Retrieved 6/20/2007, from EBSCO Host Business Source ...
.
* ''The Eskimo Storyteller''. 1999. Edwin S. Hall, illustrated by Claire Fejes.
University of Alaska Press.
* ''People of the Noatak''. 1966.
Alfred A. Knopf. 1994, re-released by Volcano Press.
* ''The Villagers: Athabaskan Indian Life Along the Yukon River''. 1981.
Random House.
References
External links
The Alaska House Art Gallery
Artists from Alaska
Writers from Fairbanks, Alaska
1920 births
1998 deaths
Works Progress Administration workers
20th-century American sculptors
Artists from New York City
Writers from New York City
American people of Polish descent
American people of Austrian descent
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American women sculptors
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