VVFA Modern | Artists | David Slivka (American, 1914 - 2010)
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A passion for art came at a young age for the Chicago-born David Slivka, son of Russian immigrants. At the age of thirteen he was awarded a scholarship to attend classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Slivka’s family moved around the country for the next three years until finally settling in San Francisco where he won a scholarship to The California School of Fine Arts and spent the next one and a half years studying under the guidance of Ralph Stackpole.
Stackpole recommended Slivka for a commission on the Public Works of Art Project (a precursor to the Works Progress Administration). In 1937, Slivka completed a bas-relief of postal workers on the Berkeley Post Office, commissioned by the Treasury Department. Like many artists during the time, Slivka’s career was placed on hold as the US entered World War II. In 1941, Slivka became a Ship Fitter on Navel vessels before joining the Merchant Marine in 1942.
After the War, Slivka moved to Manhattan where he studied painting under Stanley William Hayter. It was through Hayter that Slivka was introduced to other contemporary artists like Joan Miro, Jacques Lipchitz, and Romar Bearden. An early member of The Artists’ Club, Slivka also began to exhibit with many artists from the New York School like Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Franz Kline.
During this time Slivka also changed his artistic style from the figural, evident from his earlier PWA commissions, to the abstract. The artist began to work in carved marble but eventually turned to lost-wax bronze casting. In 1951, after the death of his friend, the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, Slivka was asked to make a death mask before Thomas’ body returned to Wales.
Slivka was not only skilled in sculpture but in drawing as well. In the 1960’s he created a series of rapid ink paintings. The following decade, he made a series of large, organic, curvilinear abstract ink drawings. Some of which where sold to the New York Port Authority. In the late 1970’s, after finding the price of bronze to costly, Slivka began to work with wood. He passed away in Manhattan in 2010.
Selected Exhibition:
Oakland Art Gallery, 1932
San Francisco Museum of Art, 1935
Museum Collections:
The Hershhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of The Smithsonian Institute
The Brooklyn Museum
Southern
Illinois University at Carbondale
National Museum of Wales
Stackpole recommended Slivka for a commission on the Public Works of Art Project (a precursor to the Works Progress Administration). In 1937, Slivka completed a bas-relief of postal workers on the Berkeley Post Office, commissioned by the Treasury Department. Like many artists during the time, Slivka’s career was placed on hold as the US entered World War II. In 1941, Slivka became a Ship Fitter on Navel vessels before joining the Merchant Marine in 1942.
After the War, Slivka moved to Manhattan where he studied painting under Stanley William Hayter. It was through Hayter that Slivka was introduced to other contemporary artists like Joan Miro, Jacques Lipchitz, and Romar Bearden. An early member of The Artists’ Club, Slivka also began to exhibit with many artists from the New York School like Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Franz Kline.
During this time Slivka also changed his artistic style from the figural, evident from his earlier PWA commissions, to the abstract. The artist began to work in carved marble but eventually turned to lost-wax bronze casting. In 1951, after the death of his friend, the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, Slivka was asked to make a death mask before Thomas’ body returned to Wales.
Slivka was not only skilled in sculpture but in drawing as well. In the 1960’s he created a series of rapid ink paintings. The following decade, he made a series of large, organic, curvilinear abstract ink drawings. Some of which where sold to the New York Port Authority. In the late 1970’s, after finding the price of bronze to costly, Slivka began to work with wood. He passed away in Manhattan in 2010.
Selected Exhibition:
Oakland Art Gallery, 1932
San Francisco Museum of Art, 1935
Museum Collections:
The Hershhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of The Smithsonian Institute
The Brooklyn Museum
Southern
Illinois University at Carbondale
National Museum of Wales
