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Boris Gorelick
1912–1984
BirthplaceRussia
Death placeCalifornia, United States of America
BiographyIn his prints, paintings, and murals, Boris Gorelick combined an acute awareness of social injustice and a feeling for abstract design that emphasizes sensuous curving line and distorted representation. Gorelick was brought to the United States by his parents from their native Russia in 1913, while still a baby. Raised in New York City, he studied at the conservative National Academy of Design, at the more progressive Art Students League, and at Columbia University. Fellowships enabled him to also work at Laurelton Hall, the estate of designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) at Cold Spring Harbor, on Long Island, New York, and at the Yaddo art colony at Saratoga Springs, New York.
As the economic privations of the Great Depression deepened in the early 1930s, Gorelick was employed by the Morgan Committee, a philanthropic organization that paid artists to decorate New York City churches and synagogues. He joined with other artists to form the Artists Union, which agitated for government relief for professional artists during the depression, and both contributed political cartoons to its journal and served as its president for several years. Gorelick found employment in the Treasury Section of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal program that sponsored the creation of artworks for the public. Under its auspices, he created murals and lithographs and, in 1935-36, established the Phoenix (Arizona) Art Center (now the Phoenix Center for the Arts).
In 1942, during World War II, Gorelick moved to California to work as an industrial designer for two aircraft manufacturers, Lockheed and Hughes. At the end of the war, he began working in the movie industry as an animator and designer. He taught at the Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, and worked with several architectural firms on interior design projects for restaurants and hotels. Notwithstanding the wide range of his artistic and design activities, Gorelick remains best known for his socially conscious prints of the 1930s and his work in cinematic animation during its golden age in the postwar period.
As the economic privations of the Great Depression deepened in the early 1930s, Gorelick was employed by the Morgan Committee, a philanthropic organization that paid artists to decorate New York City churches and synagogues. He joined with other artists to form the Artists Union, which agitated for government relief for professional artists during the depression, and both contributed political cartoons to its journal and served as its president for several years. Gorelick found employment in the Treasury Section of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal program that sponsored the creation of artworks for the public. Under its auspices, he created murals and lithographs and, in 1935-36, established the Phoenix (Arizona) Art Center (now the Phoenix Center for the Arts).
In 1942, during World War II, Gorelick moved to California to work as an industrial designer for two aircraft manufacturers, Lockheed and Hughes. At the end of the war, he began working in the movie industry as an animator and designer. He taught at the Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, and worked with several architectural firms on interior design projects for restaurants and hotels. Notwithstanding the wide range of his artistic and design activities, Gorelick remains best known for his socially conscious prints of the 1930s and his work in cinematic animation during its golden age in the postwar period.