Early career Esther Shemitz

art students league (2009), shemitz studied in mid-1920s


painter, illustrator

during 1920s, shemitz took job @ chapter of international ladies garment workers union, ilgwu, under juliet stuart poyntz in return stipend leonardo da vinci art school. in 1926, roomed on east 11 street on lower east side writer grace lumpkin , both worked @ world tomorrow magazine. on behalf of magazine, shemitz took rebecca west see passaic textile strike, shemtiz beaten , arrested. served advertising manager @ new masses in 1926.

in latter 1920s, shemitz studied @ art students league under boardman robinson, jan matulka , thomas hart benton. classmates included future pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist , muralist jacob burck , writer-illustrator irwin shapiro. shemitz contributed cartoons daily worker newspaper.

in 1929, 1 of many signatories form john reed club in new york. illustrated books international publishers, notably labor , silk grace hutchins (1929), cover designed louis lozowick. other artists contributed books published alexander trachtenberg included william siegel , hugo gellert.

united workers cooperatives, 2700-2870 bronx park east, bronx, ny 10467, shemitz , fellow artists exhibited in 1929

at year-end 1929, partook in first-ever art exhibition of club, held @ united workers cooperatives apartment buildings (also called united workers cooperative colony , commie coops ) on bronx park east. artists in show included: jacob burck, fred ellis, william gropper, eitaro ishigaki, gan kolski, louis lozowick, jan matulka, morris pass, anton refregier, louis leon ribak, otto soglow, , art young.

in 1930, shemitz worked briefly soviet-controlled amtorg trading corporation, amtorg, job found hutchin s partner anna rochester.

in 1931, contributed cartoon new masses magazine. in 1932, when husband s name appeared editor, names of esther shemitz , jacob burck appeared (art) contributors new masses alongside longer-term contributors louis lozowick, hugo gellert, william gropper, william siegel, , joseph vogel.

underground

shemitz cut short own art career when husband entered soviet underground in mid-1932. thus, unlike of circle, contributed publications such daily worker newspaper , new masses magazine, did not become 1 of new deal s federal art project artists during latter part of great depression , world war ii (1935–43).

reuben shemitz (dec 1948), shemitz s older brother

when chambers defected underground, grace hutchins delivered death threat against him, through brother, attorney reuben shemitz. later, following grand jury investigation in december 1948, reuben shemitz told press:

(hutchins) said wanted see him on matter of life , death ... assured me no harm come sister or children if whit in touch known whit steve (j. peters).

in 1952 memoir, chambers detailed:

there strode brother-in-law s office 1 morning rather striking-looking white-haired woman, fifty years old. told receptionist miss grace hutchins wished see mr. shemitz...

in private office, came point @ once: if agree turn chambers on us, said, party guarantee safety of sister , children. startled brother-in-law, who, americans, unaware of communism (we had never discussed subject), tried explain did not know whereabouts of sister, husband or children... if not show (such , such day), said briskly, killed. left...

terrified visit , unable warn us, frantic. rushed 2 people think of might know were... neither of them him.

she managed family s pipe creek farm during many active years late 1930s until mid-1950s.