Biografie von Claude BUCK (1890-1974)

Birth place: Bronx, NY

Death place: Santa Barbara, CA

Addresses: Chicago, 1919-43; Santa Cruz, CA, 1943-59; Santa Barbara, 1959-74

Profession: Painter, teacher

Studied: with his father, Wm. Rbt. Buck; NAD, 1904, with Emil Carlsen, Kenyon Cox, George deForest Brush, Francis C. Jones, Geo.W. Maynard (etching), H.A. MacNeil (sculpture) and Kenyon Cox, all 1904-12; Munich.

Exhibited: Whitney Studio, 1917; Knoedler Gal., 1917; J.W. Young Gal., Chicago, 1918; S.Indp.A., 1918; NAC, 1920; Thurber AG, Chicago, 1920 (solo); Chicago Gal. Assn., 1926 (prize), 1927 (prize), 1928 (prize), 1930 (prize) 1931 (prize), 1932 (prize), 1935 (prize); AIC, 1929 (Shaffer prize), 1932 (3 prizes: Logan med., popular prize, and gold med.); Chicago P. & S., 1932 (med.); All-Ill. Soc. FA, 1934 (prize); Vanderpoel AA, 1938; CPLH, 1944 (med.); Oakland A. Gal., 1945 (solo), 1946; Carmel A. Gal.; Santa Cruz A. Gal., 1944-46; prizes: Santa Cruz County Fair, 1947 (prize), 1949 (prize), Statewide Exh., 1954 (prize), 1957 (prize); Soc. Western A, 1948 (prize), 1952 (prize); Grand Central Gal., 1932, 1940 (solo); Chicago Gal. Assn.; NAD; Purdue Univ.; John Herron AI; Brooks Mem. A. Gal.; Crocker A. Gal.; deYoung Mem. Mus.; Laguna Beach AA; Swope Gal. A.; CAM; State Mus., Springfield, Ill.; Art: USA, 1958.

Member: Carmel AA; Soc. Western A.; Chicago Galleries Assn.; Grand Central A. Galleries; Soc. for Sanity in Art; Santa Cruz A. Lg (pres.)

Work: Eastman Mem. Fnd.; Univ. Chicago; Vanderpoel Col.; Swope A. Mus.; Pub. Lib., Santa Cruz; Santa Cruz A. Gal.; Roycemore Sch. for Girls, Evanston, Ill.; Elgin (Ill.) A. Mus.; LaGrange (Ill.) Pub. Sch.; Congregational Church, Chicago; Midway Sch., Chicago; Des Moines Pub. Lib.

Comments: As an art student he was called "Kid Hassam" for his emulation of the master. He worked at the Willet Stained Glass studios and briefly as a theatre scene painter. Beginning in 1914, he began to support himself with portrait commissions but suffered from melancholy 1916-25. He was a founder of the "Introspectives," a group of subjectivist painters who held their first exhibition at the Whitney Studio, 1917. In 1919, he moved to Chicago, teaching drawing and painting, eventually taking over Bellows" classes at the AIC; he also taught at the Chicago Acad. FA, 1921-26. Although he was considered a symbolist and creator of many imaginative works, he fought against the modernist movement.

Sources: WW59; WW47; Paul Karlstrom, Claude Buck: American Symbolist Glastonbury Gal., San Fran. (1983)