Local art conservator Chris Kenney told me about a mural painted
on the side of this man's house on Bean Creek Road. Now I really want to find it. Does anyone know the address or the current owner?
This artist is Claude Buck, born in New York City in 1890. His father gave him his first art training from ages three to fourteen. Later in his 20's he studied at Chicago's Academy of Art and Design and for awhile in Munich.
While in New York he earned money as a theatrical scene painter (perhaps his first "murals"?). He formed a group called the Introspectives and had a reputation as a "radical artist". (Uh oh! We know about those radicals!).
He subsequently moved to Chicago in 1919 where he continued his education and became a leading member of the avant-garde symbolist artists and was known for his "fantastic, sometimes disturbing images with allegorical and literary themes". In the 1920's he did a number of "hyper-real" portraits, figures and still lifes which were popular and aligned him with the opponents of abstraction and their "Sanity in Art" movement. According to Josephine Hancock Logan, the artist and founder of this movement, "Sanity in Art means soundness, rationalism, a correct integration of the art work itself in accordance with some internal logic. "
Anyway, Buck moved to Santa Cruz in 1949 until 1959. He was a member of the Santa Cruz Art League and served as its president in 1953. He moved to Santa Barbara in 1959 where he died in 1974. His work is wonderful, and I highly recommend Googling it to take a looksee. Thanks Chris for making me aware of it.
Now...where's that mural!!!?
Are you still looking information on Claude Buck?
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