Biography of the Artist
During a long and spectacularly productive career, spanning most of the present century, Frederic Taubes achieved success in a number of fields. As a painter and printmaker he won critical acclaim, particularly for his technical virtuosity: major museums purchased his works, which were shown in more one-man exhibitions that were staged for any other living artist in the United States.
As a writer, he published more than 40 authoritative books about art, many of which became standard texts and bestsellers. Turning his energies to scientific research, he discovered and approximated the painting media used by Flemish masters of the 14th and 15th centuries. In what remained of his time, he was a tireless lecturer and teacher.
Frederic Taubes
As a middle-aged man, Taubes said, "A regeneration of art is possible only when we first anchor art in sound craftsmanship and follow the principles established in the workshops of the old masters."' However, before arriving at this position he needed first to experience much, both as a student of art and a student of life.
Taubes, who was born in Lwow, Poland in 1900, has been correctly described as exemplifying "the young European artist caught up in the political and esthetic chaos of the first half of the 20th century."' The outbreak of World War I, the conflict that triggered the chaos, found the unsuspecting Taubes vacationing with his prosperous parents at a Czechoslovakian spa. Unable to return to Russian occupied Poland, the family packed its bags and moved to Vienna, where the elder Taubes, a clever banker, immediately began amassing a second fortune.
Following the war, Taubes continued his art education at the Academy in Munich, studying under Franz von Stuck, the celebrated jugendstil painter, and Prof. Max Doerner, at the time the world's leading authority on painting methodology and techniques. Mired in tradition at the Munich Academy, Taubes was nevertheless deeply affected by his adopted city, whose avant-garde artists were boldly experimenting with the newest, most daringly iconoclastic "isms." Recognizing that Central Europe had been catapulted into the 20th century by the war, Taubes became fascinated by experimental art, which he romantically perceived (as did many Europeans at the time) as a response to new problems faced by modernity. After a year, he quit the Munich Academy, enrolling at the experimental art school par excellence, the Bauhaus in Weimar.
During the 1920s, Taubes experimented with a number of styles, including (besides Cubism), dada, Expressionism and the New Objectivity. The painters who influenced him at this time — far from old masters — were Paul Cezanne, Giorgio de Chirico, Otto Dix and George Grosz. Moreover, for some years he worked as an itinerant portrait painter, traveling east across Europe to the Black Sea, then north to Warsaw.
In 1930 Taubes sailed for New York where, after four return trips to Europe, he determined to settle permanently. Conditions in the depression stricken city were anything but auspicious for a young, foreign artist eager to make his way. However, mustering the strength that had served him in Europe, Taubes eventually found a gallery interested in handling his work, in particular his realistic portraits.
During the following few years in America, Taubes became a successful society portraitist, creating likenesses of such monied and influential personalities as Claire Booth Luce, Baron von Romberg and Mrs. William Randolph Hearst. After ten years in the United States, Taubes had become an important artist. Critics applauded his work, while connoisseurs expressed the most sincere approval by purchasing it. Prestigious colleges and institutions invited the ascending art superstar to lecture and teach.
Taubes' fame peaked in the mid-1940s, when his groundbreaking scientific research, followed by the appearance of several successful books, greatly increased his prestige. He spent 1942 as the Carnegie visiting professor of art and resident painter at the University of Illinois in Urbana, where he discovered and approximated the painting media used in 14th and 15th century Flemish paintings, world-renowned for their mysterious durability.
Following up his Urbana researches, Taubes formulated his well-known line of painting media and varnishes, which became commercially available in 1942. He also published his findings in The Mastery of Oil Painting, which was printed in numerous editions, both here and abroad. The publication of the book in England brought Taubes invitations to lecture at Oxford University and the Royal Society of Art, of which he was elected a fellow.
In 1944, Taubes published Oil Painting for the Beginner, which became the standard art students' text for ten years, and which remains in print to this day.
Between 1943 and 1962, he published a regular column, "The Taubes Page," in American Artist magazine. In his writing for the page, which over the years became increasingly controversial, he continually championed the craft techniques of the old masters. After 1955, Taubes all but ceased showing his work, although he never stopped painting, energetically altering and developing his art until his death in 1981.
—  Excerpted from a review by Roger Green. Written on the occassion of a memorial retrospective of Taubes’ work, organized and exhibited by the Butler Institute of American Art in 1983.
Chronological History of the Artist’s Life
1908Â Â After showing artistic talent is given private painting lessons by local masters.
1914Â Â Outbreak of World War I displaces family to Vienna.
1918Â Â Attends Academy of Munich. Studies with Franz von Stuck.
1920Â Â Travels to Weimar, studies color theory with Johannes Itten at the Bauhaus.
1923Â Â Marries Lili Jacobson, designer at the Weiner Werkstatte.
1929Â Â Travels to the Middle East. Paints in Jerusalem and Syria.
1930Â Â Travels to New York and begins American career.
1931Â Â Joins Dudensing Gallery. Makes a living as a society portrait painter. Paints Mrs. William Randolph Hearst Jr., Mrs. Morgan Belmont, Baron von Romberg, etc.
1936Â Â Joins Midtown Gallery.
1938Â Â Given full color feature in Life Magazine
1939Â Â Teaches summer session at Mills College. Other staff members include Darius Milhaud, Norman Thomas, and Martha Graham.
1941Â Â Publishes first book, The Technique of Oil Painting.
1941Â Â Joins Associated American Artists Group.
1941Â Â Carnegie Visiting Professor, University of Illinois. Develops Copal painting medium that is manufactured by Permanent Pigments until the mid 1970's.
1942Â Â Joins editorial staff of American Artist Magazine. Writes the monthly, "Taubes Page,"Â that will appear until 1961.
1944Â Â Publishes Oil Painting for the Beginner. Book will be revised three times and go through 14 printings.
1945Â Â Included in American Artist Group Monographs. Others included are Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, John Sloan, Raphael Soyer, etc.
1948Â Â Elected Fellow, Royal Society of Art.
1950Â Â Joins staff of University of Alberta, Canada.
1955Â Â Last exhibition at Associated American Artists Gallery. Will not show his work in public again until 1963.
1956Â Â Opens his own painting school in Provincetown, MA. School will operate until 1972.
1981  Exhibits at the Marbella Gallery, NYC, after a public absence of 16 years.
1981Â Â Publishes 40th and final book, A Judgment of Art: Fact and Fiction.
1981Â Â Frederic Taubes dies in Nyack, NY.
Obituary · The New York Times
June 21, 1981
Self Portrait
1937
oil on canvas
30 x 42 in.
Taubes
in his studio
Three Graces
1962
oil on canvas
30 x 26 in.
The Frederic Taubes GallerYÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Info@FredericTaubes.com