Laura Slobe (sometimes credited as Laura Gray; November 17, 1909 – January 11, 1958) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

painter, sculptor and cartoonist. Slobe was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

to a well-to-do Jewish family, and grew up in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, enrolling in the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

at 16; by 19 she was exhibiting paintings and winning prizes. She began exhibiting sculpture as well by the late 1930s, and came eventually to be known more as a sculptor than as a painter. In 1939 and 1940 she worked for the

Works Progress Administration 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, i ...

, creating art and teaching in a number of states, including

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. She became acquainted at this point with

George Perle George Perle (6 May 1915 – 23 January 2009) was an American composer and music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. This serialist style, and ...

, whom she married in 1940; in 1942 the couple joined the Socialist Workers Party, and she took the pseudonym "Laura Gray". She was soon tasked with assisting in the organization of automotive workers, and it was at this time that she began her cartooning career. Encouraged to submit drawings to ''

The Militant ''The Militant'' is an international socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Pathfinder Press. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Aus ...

'', her first appeared in the paper on March 4, 1944; she went on to become the paper's staff artist, submitting at least one cartoon almost weekly for the rest of her life. These drawings, which have been compared to the work of

Boardman Robinson Boardman Michael Robinson (1876–1952) was a Canadian-American painter, illustrator and cartoonist. Biography Early years Boardman Robinson was born September 6, 1876 in Nova Scotia. He spent his childhood in England and Canada, before mov ...

Hugo Gellert Hugo Gellert (born Hugó Grünbaum, May 3, 1892 December 9, 1985) was a Hungarian-American illustrator and muralist. A committed radical and member of the Communist Party of America, Gellert created much work for political activism in the 1920s ...

, and

Robert Minor Robert Berkeley "Bob" Minor (15 July 1884 – 26 January 1952), alternatively known as "Fighting Bob," was a political cartoonist, a radical journalist, and, beginning in 1920, a leading member of the American Communist Party. Background Robe ...

, would be published in Trotskyist publications around the world. Some of her cartoons on the subject of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

would also be published in the

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

press. Slobe and Perle moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

after

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 opposing ...

, divorcing in 1952 but remaining close. She lived on and off for a time with Duncan Ferguson, and supported herself with a number of odd jobs, devoting less and less of her time to her own art over the years. Always fragile in health – she lived with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

from early in her life and in 1947 further suffered the removal of a lung – she contracted

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

that rapidly turned fatal, killing her at the age of 49. She died in New York City. A sculpture prize was established in her honor at the Art Institute of Chicago after her death, and Perle composed a Quintet for Strings in her memory. Two sculptures by Slobe are in the collection of the

Illinois State Museum The Illinois State Museum features the life, land, people and art of the State of Illinois. The headquarters museum is located on Spring and Edwards Streets, one block southwest of the Illinois State Capitol, in Springfield. There are three satell ...

; they are ''Vanity'', a plaster of c. 1935, and ''Venus'', a plaster of about the same date. A collection of her cartoons for ''The Militant'' is owned by the

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents radical and left history, with strengths in the histories of communism, socialism, anarchism, the New Left, the Civil Rights Movement, and utopian experiments. T ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

References

1909 births 1958 deaths American women painters American women sculptors 20th-century American painters 20th-century American sculptors American women cartoonists Members of the Socialist Workers Party (United States) Artists from Pittsburgh Painters from Pennsylvania Artists from Chicago Painters from Illinois School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Deaths from pneumonia in New York City Sculptors from Pennsylvania Sculptors from Illinois American cartoonists {{US-sculptor-stub