NYSWA FOUNDERS
The New York Society of Women Artists
Marguerite Thompson Zorach (1887-1968)
Lucile Lundquist Blanch (1895-1981)
Concetta Scaravaglione (1900-1975)
Today, the New York Society of Women Artists finds itself tasked with remaking itself. We aspire to birth new schools of art and encourage new avenues of exchange and discussion. As we embrace women who work in many diverse artistic styles from abstract to realism, we dedicate ourselves with a look to the future and a respect for our past.
Research by Rachelle Weisberger, Chair of the Keystone Committee.
Lucile Lundquist Blanch (1895-1981)
It is remarkable how the painter and lithographer Lucile Lundquist Blanch found her calling as an artist. She grew up in rural Hawley, Minnesota, a town with a population of only 270 people. Yet, at age 19, she began her artistic journey when she studied at the Minneapolis Art Institute for four years. It was there that she met fellow student and future husband, artist Arnold Blanch.
Seeking to further her art education, Blanch headed to New York City after winning a scholarship to the Art Students League. Both she and
Arnold Blanch enrolled there after the end of the First World War in 1918. They married shortly thereafter, traveled to France, and finally settled in Woodstock, New York. There they became part of the nearby town of Maverick’s art colony--a town she called “home” the last 15 years of her life.
The couple initially supported themselves by operating a small cafeteria and weaving and selling tapestries. Later on they became key figures in the revitalization of the Woodstock Art Colony. Things started looking up in the mid-1920's when the two artists achieved recognition for their work. Lucile Blanch received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1933. While their careers took off--their marriage didn’t. Two years later, the couple divorced.
On her own now, Bland throughout the years immersed herself in teaching and exhibiting her work in several important galleries and museums including the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, a the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Minneapolis Museum. In 1937, Blanch had a solo show at the Milch Galleries in New York. While she painted several WPA commissioned murals during this period, her art was evolving into abstraction by the mid-1940’s.
Upon retiring after years of teaching at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, Blanch was honored with a large retrospective show. She then returned to Woodstock in the 1960’s.
In addition to being a founding member of NYSWA, Blanch was a member of the American Artists Congress and Woodstock Art Association.
Lucile Blanch died in 1981 at age 85 in Kingston, New York.