Michael Lenson

1903-1971

Michael Lensonwas born in 1903 in Galich, Russia. He emigrated to America in 1911. While a student at the National Academy of Design in 1928, he won the coveted $10,000 Chaloner Paris Prize which paid for four years of study in London (Slade School of Art), Paris (Academie des Beaux Arts) and the Netherlands. While abroad, his works were exhibited in the Autumn and Spring Parisian Salons (Salon d’Automne 1928-29) and other venues.

Upon his return to America, Lenson won critical acclaim in one-man shows in Manhattan's Kende, Bonestell and other galleries. When the Great Depression stuck, he became director of WPA mural projects for the state of New Jersey. He completed major murals for Newark City Hall, The Verona Sanatarium, Weequahic High School in Newark, New Jersey, and the Post Office in Mount Hope, West Virginia. Who Was Who in American Art calls Lenson "New Jersey's most important muralist."

Michael Lenson was a man of many talents. "The Realm of Art," a weekly column he wrote for The Newark Sunday News from 1956-1971, established Lenson as "New Jersey's most distinguished art critic," according to scholar William Gerdts.

Lenson painted and exhibited extensively until his death in 1971. His works are in the collections of the RISD Museum, The Maier Museum of American Art, The Johnson Museum at Cornell, The Newark Museum, The Montclair Art Museum, the Wolfsonian Collection and many others.

Collectors and lovers of Lenson's art value his consummate skill as a draftsman and the flawless technique he achieved by close study of the Old Masters.

Lenson stands apart as one of the most accomplished artists of his age - a true Renaissance artist and man living and working in twentieth-century America.

Selected Collections

Butler Institute of American Art
Countrywide Funding Collection, Pasadena, CA

FDR Memorial Library, Hyde Park, NY

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Maier Museum of American Art, Lynchburg, VA
Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Miami Beach, FL
Montclair Art Museum, NJ
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ

Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI
Princeton University Art Museum, Printecon, NJ

Numerous private collections

Selected Exhibitions

Goupil Galleries, London, 1928-29
Salon d'Automne, Paris, 1928-29
Salon de Printemps, Paris, 1928-29
Caz-Delbo Gallery, New York, 1933 (solo)
The Wanamaker Regional Art Exhibition, New York, 1934
Gallery Artists, Midtown Galleries, New York, 1935
Museum of Modern Art, 1935
Designs for the 1937 Worlds Fair, Architectural League, New York, 1937
Federal Art Project Exhibition, Federal Art Gallery, New York, 1937
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1935, 1938
Works from the Mount Bethel Art ColoNew York, Arthur U. Newton Galleries, New York, 1938
American Artists Congress, Wanamaker Gallery, New York, 1938, 1939, 1940
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, 1939, 1948
Newark Preparatory School, Newark, New Jersey, 1940 (solo)
The Women, Associated American Artists, New York, circa 1940s
The American Mining Scene, American British Art Center, New York, 1941
Associated Artists of New Jersey, Riverside Museum, New York, 1943
Carnegie Institute, 1943, 1949, 1950
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey 1940, 1941, 1944-1946, 1952, 1955, 1961, 1964, 1965
Midtown Galleries, New York, 1944
Riverside Museum, New York, I944-1946, 1950
Tribute to FDR, Vanderbilt Gallery, New York, 1944
Associated Artists of New Jersey, Riverside Museum, New York 1947
Bonestell Gallery, New York, 1947 (solo)
Laurel Gallery, New York, 1950 (solo)
Kende Gallery, New York, 1951 (solo)
Newark Jewish Center, Newark, New Jersey 1951 (solo)
Associated Artists of New Jersey, Barbizon Plaza New York, 1952
Montclair Art Museum, NJ, Montclair, New Jersey 1953, 1957-1959, 1961-1963, 1970 (solo)
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 1955
Hunterdon County Art Center, 9th Annual New Jersey Exhibition, 1962
Cober Gallery, New York, 1962 (solo)
Providence Rhode Island Art Club, 1963
New York Worlds Fair, New Jersey Pavilion, 1964
Glassboro State College, New Jersey, 1965 (solo)
Butler Institute of American Art, 1965
WPA Artists Then and Now, Essex County YM-YWHA, New Jersey, 1967 Trenton Museum, New Jersey, 1968, 1970
Ringwood Association of the Arts, Ringwood, New Jersey, 1975 (solo)
New Deal for Art, Rutgers University, New Jersey, 1980
William Paterson College, Wayne, New Jersey, 1986 (solo retrospective)
Painting America: Mural Art in the New Deal Era, Midtown Galleries and Janet Marqusee Fine Arts, New York, 1988
New Jersey by Day, New York by Night, Susan Teller Gallery, New York, 1991
Michael Lenson: Real and Surreal, Rutgers University, Hunterdon Art Center, Monmouth County Museum, New Jersey, 1993 (solo retrospective)
Surrealism in America During the 1930 and 1940s, Dalvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL, 1999
Art of the People, U.S. Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1999
Michael Lenson: Magical Surrealism, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, 2003 (solo)
Masters and Mavericks, Seraphin Gallery, Phildelphia, 2005

Mural Commissions

New Jersey History, Essex Mountain Sanitorium, Verona, NJ, 1936 (destroyed)
History of the Enlightenment of Man, Weequahic High School, Newark, NJ, 1939 (extant)
New Jersey Agriculture and Industry, New Jersey Pavilion, New York Worlds Fair, 1939
(destroyed)
History of Newark, Newark City Hall, 1941 (extant)
Mining, Mount Hope, West Virginia Post Office, 1942 (extant)
Electronics, Electronic Corporation of America, New York (believed destroyed)
Lincoln and Douglas, Charlton Street School, Newark
The Four Freedoms, 14th Avenue School, Newark
Lenson also supervised the design and execution of murals now installed in over 15 public buildings throughout New Jersey comprising the major part of all mural decorations done in the state.