Albert Pels | Untitled (Distressed Old Woman)

As both an artist and an educator, Albert Pels made an immense impact on the social realist movement. He was an incredibly bright student who studied at several major institutions, being awarded several scholarships and multiple medals. He painted in a unique sculptural style that produced what The Art Digest described as “the effect of figures existing outside the area of their canvases”. By 1949, he had been shown in all of the major museums in the country, including several solo exhibitions, and won many awards. This is when he decided to make his biggest impact on the art community, founding the Albert Pels School of Art in New York City under the dictum “You Too Can Paint”. Among the thousands of students who attended over the years were several celebrities, who would paint pictures for charity auctions, including Duke Ellington and Lena Horn. Albert was always a mainstay in prominent circles, spending afternoons in New York’s finest museums with the likes of Arshile Gorky before heading out in the evenings to party with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Unbelievably, he spent most of his career with no frontal vision in his right eye, having lost it after being hit by a car as a teenager.