Biografie von Bena Frank MAYER (1900-1991/94)

Birth place: Norfolk, VA

Addresses: NYC

Profession: Painter, teacher

Studied: Cooper Union; Hunter Col.; ASL, with Gifford Beal, Stuart Davis, and Kenneth Hayes Miller; abroad; portrait painting with Cecelia Beaux; also with George Luks

Exhibited: (exhib. as Bena Virginia Frank prior to her marriage) S. Indp. A.; Salons of Am.; SSAL; ASL, Woodstock, NY; AEA; Carnegie Inst., 1940; New York Soc. Women Artists Ann., 1947-; NAWA, 1950-; Am. Soc. Contemporary Artists Ann., 1950-; NYWCS, 1953; WMAA; Houston (TX) Mus.; Norfolk Mus. Art; Riverside Mus.; All. Artists; Southern States Art League; Univ. Maine; NYPL; A. &Crafts Cl. New Orleans; New Haven PCC; NYC WPA Art" at Parsons School Design, 1977. Special awards: silver & bronze medals for drawing, Cooper Union Art School, 1920s, (medals, 1916, 1917); NAWA (Marcia Brady Tucker Prize, 1951 & Lena Newcastle Prize, 1959)"

Member: Brooklyn Soc. Artists; ASL; All. Artists Am.; Salons of America; United Am. Artists; Am. Soc. Contemp. Artists (chairman of various committees, 1950-, bd. of governors, 1965-); NAWA (const. committee, 1969-); New York Soc. Women Artists (pres., 1952 -53); AEA; Artists Tech. Res. Inst. (administrative asst., 1959-).

Work: Hunter Col.; Nassau County Hospitals, NY; Roosevelt H.S., NY; Brooklyn Pub. Libr.; NYPL; Univ. of Maine; Norfolk (VA) Mus. Arts & Sciences; WMAA; Huntington Hartford Coll., NY; in collections of Mrs. Charles Love, Rochester, NY & Mrs. David Levy, New York. Commissions: portraits, comissioned by Mrs. Edward Rohr, Norfolk, 1924, World Medical Assn., New York, 1959; Dr. Nachtigall, New York, 1959, Dr. William M. Hitzig, New York, 1970 & Katharine Trenchard, New York, 1970.

Comments: Began as a portrait painter in the late 1920s; but later became more known for her landscapes as well. Her husband was Ralph Mayer, author of The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques. Positions: vice-pres., Inst. Art Technology; dir., New York Soc. Women Artists. Preferred media: oils, watercolors. Also appears as Bena Virginia Frank.

Sources: WW.73; Helen Worden, The Artist in her Studio, 1949; Ann Gracimos, "An Odyssey for Art," 1961, New York World Telegram, 1961; J. Harvey Rosenthal, "Bena Frank Mayer," Travel in Fashion (spring, 1959); WW47, WW59; New York City WPA Art, 61 (w/repros.); Pisano, One Hundred Years...the National Association of Women Artists, 70.