1. Theresa Pollak was an American artist and art educator born in Richmond, Virginia.
18 Facts About Theresa Pollak
1. 2.
Theresa Pollak was a nationally known painter, and she is largely credited with the founding of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts.
3.
Theresa Pollak was a teacher at VCU's School of the Arts between 1928 and 1969.
4.
Theresa Pollak's art has been exhibited in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC She died at the age of 103 on September 18,2002 and was given a memorial exhibition at Anderson Gallery of Virginia Commonwealth University.
5.
Theresa Pollak was a tireless advocate of modern art and the power of artistic expression, writing an article in defense of the exhibition of contemporary American art at the Virginia Museum in 1958.
6.
Theresa Pollak was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate, and her alma mater University of Richmond presented Pollak an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts on May 13,1973.
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From 1912 to 1917, Theresa Pollak studied at the Richmond Art Club under Adele Clark and Nora Houston.
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Theresa Pollak then received a scholarship to study at the Art Students League of New York from 1921 to 1926 with artists such as modernist Max Weber and in the late 1950s with abstract expressionist Hans Hoffmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
9.
Theresa Pollak studied at the Hans Hoffman School of Painting in Provincetown, Massachusetts in the summer of 1958.
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Student enrollment increased and in 1935, Theresa Pollak became a full-time Professor of Art at Richmond Professional Institute.
11.
In 1969, RPI became Virginia Commonwealth University and Theresa Pollak was VCU's first instructor of art.
12.
Theresa Pollak pioneered what is the Art Foundation Program, which freshman art students are required to complete before entering their specialized department.
13.
Theresa Pollak Pollack was represented by the Scott-McKennis Fine Art gallery in Carytown and later at the Reynolds Gallery on East Franklin Street, where over 100 Pollack paintings and drawing were sold.
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Theresa Pollak participated in numerous exhibitions including the Whitney Museum of American Art's First Biennial of Contemporary Painting in 1932 and group exhibitions at Rockefeller Center in New York City in 1936.
15.
In 1971, The Theresa Pollak Building at the Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts was named for her.
16.
The poster is a reproduction of Theresa Pollak's 1930 painting "Maxine".
17.
On May 12,2015 the Richmond Times Dispatch announced that Virginia Commonwealth University's Anderson Gallery was closed and that the Anderson Gallery Collections, including its holdings of art by Theresa Pollak, would be moved to VCU's James Branch Cabell Library.
18.
Theresa Pollak's works are in the permanent collections of The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Chrysler Museum, the Valentine, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Richmond among others.