Eugene Ludins (March 23, 1904 in

Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russian i ...

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– May 20, 1996 in

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) was a leading regional American painter and academic. His paintings are in the collection of the

Whitney Museum of Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, and his works have been shown in solo exhibits in

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 2000 ...

, the Dorsky Museum at SUNY in

New Paltz, New York New Paltz () is an incorporated U.S. town in Ulster County, New York. The population was 14,003 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The town is located in the southeastern part of the county and is south of Kingston. New Paltz contains a village, also wit ...

, and

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, as well as in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. His

representational art Representation is the use of signs that stand in for and take the place of something else.Mitchell, W. 1995, "Representation", in F Lentricchia & T McLaughlin (eds), ''Critical Terms for Literary Study'', 2nd edn, University of Chicago Press, Chica ...

, often fantastic and surrealistic, fell into obscurity after 1948, concurrent with the advent of

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

and his move to teach at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. Only in the early 21st Century did he regain national recognition, posthumously.

Early career

Ludins was born in Mariupol, Russian Empire, and he moved with his parents, David and Olga Ludins, to America when he was a few months old. They settled in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, where he grew up. Ludins attended the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at American Fine Arts Society, 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists ...

, and from 1928 to 1932, he lived and worked in the Maverick Artists Colony in Woodstock. There, in 1932, he met fellow Woodstock artist Hannah Small, who was then married to (but separated from) artist Austin Mecklem; later, they eloped to

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, and upon returning, moved to their own house in Woodstock. In 1937, he married the now-divorced Small, and he served as a director of two

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

s from 1937 to 1939. From 1941 to 1942, Luden's ''Fish Hunt'' was exhibited at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, but did not win any awards in their annual show of American paintings and sculpture.

World War II and later career

At the age of 40, he enlisted in the Army; he served in the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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in the Pacific theater of war. He was changed by the experience; According to the ''Troy Record'', "the horrors he saw there would strongly influence his artistic career for the next decade and to some extent for the rest of his life." "His war experiences seep into the imagery" of his paintings and drawings, noted ''Art Roll''. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' praised his work on July 4, 1948. The ''Times'' also noted a solo exhibit of his drawings in 1958, calling them "light ... a bit of welcome relief." Ludins taught for many years at the

starting in 1948, until he retired in 1969. Amongst his many students at U. of Iowa was Berta Rosenbaum Golahny. He was one of a number of

W.P.A. The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...

artists who had gone to teach art at U. of Iowa, all without academic credentials, including his more famous peer,

Grant Wood Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for '' American Gothic'' (193 ...

, although Ludins would stay there for 30 years. He moved back to Woodstock, and lived there in his retirement from 1969 until his death in 1996. Even in his retirement, Ludins mentored and befriended art students, including Susana Torruella Leval, director of

El Museo del Barrio El Museo del Barrio, often known simply as El Museo (the museum), is a museum at 1230 Fifth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is located near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, immediately north of the Museum of the Cit ...

, and her husband,

Pierre Leval Pierre Nelson Leval (born September 4, 1936) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. At the time of his appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1993, he was a United States District ...

, who was a Federal judge; they would be critical to the reëvaluation of his artistic

oeuvre Oeuvre(s) or Œuvre(s) may refer to: * A work of art; or, more commonly, the body of work of a creator Books * ''L'Œuvre'', a novel by Émile Zola * ''Œuvres'', a work by Emil Cioran * ''Œuvres'', a work by Auguste Brizeux * ''Oeuvres'', a wor ...

Death and legacy

Small, his wife, died in 1992, and Ludins created a fireproof storage facility for their collective works of art. Ludins died in 1996 at the age of 92. According to '' Metroland'', "Ludins' works languished, forgotten, in the concrete vault the artist built for them...." In the early 21st century, Ludin's art, once "covered in

cobweb A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web, or cobweb (from the archaic word '' coppe'', meaning "spider") is a structure created by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets, generally meant to catch its prey. Spi ...

s" according to ''The New York Times'', received lost-due favorable recognition, in great part to the work of his old friends the Levals. Prices of his art were "at first consistent and now rising" as of 2012.

SUNY New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an ac ...

's Dorksy Art Museum hosted a major exhibition of his art in 2012, curated by Torruella Leval, which received rave reviews. There followed an exhibit of about 60 of the same pieces in 2013 at the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol. ...

References

External links

Biography
at Ask Art {{DEFAULTSORT:Ludins, Eugene People from the Bronx American male painters 1904 births 1996 deaths People from Woodstock, New York 20th-century American painters Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Painters from New York City People of the New Deal arts projects University of Iowa faculty 20th-century American male artists