Martha Kantor (1896–1981) was an American glass painter. She was a member of the

art colony Art colonies are organic congregations of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, who are often drawn to areas of natural beauty, the prior existence of other artists, art schools there, or a lower cost of living. They are typically mission ...

New City, New York New City is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York, United States, part of the New York Metropolitan Area. A suburb of New York City, the hamlet is located north of the city at its closest p ...

, and "recognized as a master" of painting on glass."

Early life

Kantor was born as Martha Ryther in 1896 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother, Martha Dickinson, was a painter and Kantor took painting lessons from

Maurice Prendergast Maurice Brazil Prendergast (October 10, 1858 – February 1, 1924) was an American artist who painted in oil and watercolor, and created monotypes. His delicate landscapes and scenes of modern life, characterized by mosaic-like color, are ...

at a young age. She subsequently studied under Hugo Robus and

William Zorach William Zorach (February 28, 1889 – November 15, 1966) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and writer. He won the Logan Medal of the Arts in 1927. He was at the forefront of American artists embracing cubism. He is the husband of ...

at the Modern Art School in New York City.

Career

Kantor joined an

co-founded by her former teacher Hugo Robus and another artist,

Henry Varnum Poor Henry Varnum Poor (December 8, 1812 – January 4, 1905) was an American financial analyst and founder of H.V. and H.W. Poor Co, which later evolved into the financial research and analysis bellwether, Standard & Poor's. Biography Born in East ...

in 1918. By the 1930s, she took up painting on glass, an old method of

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

. She painted

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

houses and

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s. Her work was exhibited at the

Zabriskie Gallery The Zabriskie Gallery was founded in New York City by Virginia Zabriskie in 1954. Early years Virginia Zabriskie started the art gallery with a one-dollar down payment. It had formerly been the Korman Gallery, a cooperative that included the pa ...

in New York City. According to ''The New York Times'', she became "recognized as a master of the medium." Kantor was the founder of the Rockland Foundation, later known as the Rockland Center for the Arts in

West Nyack, New York West Nyack is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located north of Blauvelt, east of Nanuet, southwest of Valley Cottage, southeast of Bardonia, and west of Central ...

Personal life, death and legacy

Kantor was married twice. Her first husband was Jock Fulton. Her second husband, Morris Kantor, was an artist. Kantor resided on South Mountain Road in New City, New York, and she summered in

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...

. Kantor died of cancer on January 10, 1981 in New City, New York, aged 84. She was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Rockland Center for the Arts in November 1981. One of her paintings, ''Reading In Bed'', is in the permanent collection of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

in Washington, D.C. The

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

holds a screen-printed silk work by her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kantor, Martha 1896 births 1981 deaths Painters from Boston People from New City, New York Painters from New York (state) 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters