Samuel Rosenberg (1896–1972) was an American artist and Professor at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, PA. He showed his work at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the Whitney Museum in New York, the National Academy of Art in Washington, the Corcoran Gallery, and in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was a beloved art teacher, and some of his students were Mel Bochner, Philip Pearlstein and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

Early life

Samuel Rosenberg's parents immigrated from Austria-Hungary. His mother saw that he was interested in art early on, and she enrolled him in the Columbian Council School, which later became known as the

Irene Kaufmann Settlement Irene Kaufmann Settlement (IKS), known as the Columbian School and Settlement from 1895 to 1910, was a settlement house located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, at 1835 Center Avenue. It was the idea of Pauline Hanauer Rosenberg and established by ...

. Rosenberg also took art lessons from Jacob R. Coblens, who was an artist from Paris, but working in

. During those lessons, Rosenberg learned to draw from memory. Samuel Rosenberg spent one year at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

in New York, and then he came back to live in Pittsburgh. When the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

started, he did a tour of duty in the U.S. Army.

Life as an artist

Samuel Rosenberg started his career by painting portraits. He painted a Self-Portrait in 1919, which showed he was a confident young artist and his use of light in his paintings. In 1920 he had his first exhibition in the Carnegie International. During 1930s, Rosenberg's paintings were portraying the happiness and difficulties of life of the black and Jewish neighborhoods in the

Hill District The Hill District is a grouping of historically African American neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the years leading up to World War I, "the Hill" was the cultural center of black life in the city and a major cent ...

. He also painted scenes of the city, which was inspired by Pittsburgh's big hills, dirty air, uneven houses built on the hills, and the gloomy tones around him. His painting, "Eviction", of 1935, shows the impact how the Depression affected residents of the

. He liked being part of the Pittsburgh community, and he used many of his paintings to show how Pittsburgh looked like before redevelopment. 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 opposin ...

started, Rosenberg started to paint allegorical scenes, where he used Jewish signs. In his paintings, the artist shows human misery during the war and the events of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. He portrayed persecution of Jews in Europe. In the 1950s, his paintings became more abstract, where he liked using light, colors, and shapes. Samuel Rosenberg painted for almost six decades in the twentieth century, during the Great Depression, and 2 World Wars. He made over 500 paintings during his 57-year career.

Teaching career

In 1917, Samuel Rosenberg started the Neighborhood Art School at the

. From 1924-1965, he taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now

) From 1926-1964, he taught adult classes at the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association From 1937-1945, he directed the art department at the Pennsylvania College for Women, now

Chatham University Chatham University is a private university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally founded as a women's college, it began enrolling men in undergraduate programs in 2015. It enrolls about 2,110 students, including 1,002 undergraduate students an ...

. His students remember him as a professor who let them have the freedom of expression. Some of his students were Mel Bochner, Philip Pearlstein,

, Lois Katz Blaufeld, Rochelle Blumenfeld, Aaronel deRoy Gruber, Jane Haskell, Virginia Holzman, Anita Freund Morganstern and Abe Weiner. Rosenberg saved Andy Warhol from being expelled from Carnegie Tech in 1947. To honor the memory of a talented artist and a professor, Carnegie Mellon School of Art presents Samuel Rosenberg Art Award to outstanding students

Shows and awards

Samuel Rosenberg exhibited his art nationally. His work was included in renowned exhibits, such as San Francisco's Golden Gate Exposition and

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

, and his paintings were selected by the

Whitney Museum of American 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), ...

for inclusion in their early biennials. He showed his work at the

, the Corcoran Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He had 2 solo shows at the

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbur ...

, and he participated in every Carnegie International exhibition from 1933 to 1967. In 1935 Rosenberg was a recipient of Carnegie Institute Prize. In 1960, the Westmoreland County Museum of Art (now the Westmoreland Museum of American Art) organized ''Samuel Rosenberg'', a retrospective exhibition of 116 paintings. In 2003 the Westmoreland Museum of American Art organized the exhibition ''Samuel Rosenberg: Portrait of a Painter'' with accompanying catalog of the same name. Concurrent to the exhibition were 2 exhibitions featuring ''The Students of Samuel Rosenberg''. In 2009 exhibit of his students work: ''A Painter's Legacy'', at the American Jewish Museum at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, people paid tribute to his legacy and witnessed the influence of his art on his students.

Media about Rosenberg

''Samuel Rosenberg: Pittsburgh’s Painter Laureate'' (2008) provided a timeline of Rosenberg’s art progress over the years. Former students and relatives provided interviews.,. ''Samuel Rosenberg: Portrait of a Painter'' is a biography of Rosenberg written by Barbara Jones in 2003.

Family life

Samuel Rosenberg met his future wife, Libbie Levin (1898–1987) in the Hill District Library. She worked as a clerk there. Their only son, Murray Z. Rosenberg (1925–1996), became a medical doctor in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

and he was also an artist, mostly drawing illustrations.

References

External links

CMU Professor's Legacy Reflected In A New ExhibitGuide to the Ruth Westerman Collection on Samuel Rosenberg, 1944-2010Guide to the Samuel Rosenberg Papers and Photographs, 1918-2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenberg, Samuel 20th-century American painters Artists from Pittsburgh American conceptual artists 1896 births 1972 deaths American male painters American portrait painters Jewish American artists American people of Austrian-Jewish descent American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Carnegie Mellon University faculty