ALBERT WEIN (1915-1991)
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Biography • Albert Wein (1915-1991)
Born in the Bronx, New York, Albert Wein spent his early life in Baltimore. Wein was the only son of an accomplished woman artist, Elsa Wein, who was a staff artist for the Baltimore-American. The young Wein was introduced to art-making at an early age as Elsa Wein enrolled the two of them in classes at the Maryland Institute of Art when Albert was just twelve years old. The Institute centered its curriculum on academic-based Classicism, providing Wein with a grounding from which to spring towards modernism. The Crash of 1929 caused the Wein family to return to the Bronx, where Wein finished high school while attending classes at the National Academy of Design with the well-known painter Ivan Olinsky. Wein continued his studies at several prestigious New York art schools, including the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design with Sidney Waugh in 1932, the Hans Hoffman School of Art, and the Grand Central School of Art. Wein was both a painter and a sculptor when he was taught by Hans Hoffman the modern theories of art. Wein gained recognition for his sculpture, as its academic classicism combined with the modernism learned at the Hans Hoffman School produced a signature stylization of classical tradition.
Wein worked for the WPA (Works Progress Administration) starting in 1934, where he was able to produce many fine works for both commissions and competitions. In 1946 Wein won the Prix de Rome, a distinguished award which allowed him to study at the American Academy in Rome. While in Rome he felt increasingly inspired by the classical art of Italy. Upon returning to the United States, Wein received the Tiffany award for the sculpture Demeter. In addition, Phyrne before the Judges was chosen to be placed at the Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. Wein exhibited regularly at the National Sculpture Society, where he won a prize in 1941. In 1948 Plowman was reproduced as plate #44 in a book by Jacques Schnier titled Sculpture in Modern America published by the University of California Press at Berkeley and Los Angeles. In 1949 Wein received a Tiffany Foundation fellowship for sculpture. The artist’s work was also exhibited in the 1951 American Sculpture Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the 1970’s Wein received a commission for the Libby Dam relief, the largest granite relief in the United States. Wein continued to exhibit at the National Sculpture Society into the 1980’s. In 1989 Albert Wein received a fellowship, grant and residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in northern Italy. Wein led a long and successful career, continuing to receive awards and honors up to his death in 1991.