Alice Decker

Alice Decker (September 1, 1901 – 1979) was an American sculptor born in St. Louis, Missouri.

Early years

Decker studied in Europe with Bourdelle, Despiau and in New York with direct carver Robert Laurent.[1]

Later career

During the course of 1934 she married Duncan Ferguson. Shortly thereafter she began a three-year affair with critic Lewis Mumford, beginning in 1934, but after a mutual parting they both agreed to destroy their correspondence from during this period, fearing that their respective spouses might learn of their relationship. She later joined a “League Against War, Fascism and Lewis Mumford” with his wife Sophia and another former lover of his, Catherine Bauer.[2] In 1936, after leaving her husband she moved into a house in Greenwich Village with a long, storied history.[3]

During the Great Depression US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated the New Deal. One of its programs was the Federal Art Projects under which the federal government hired artists, mostly painters and sculptors to create art for a variety of public places, often post offices. De Coux carved two reliefs, ""The Oldest Church in the Valley” and Ploughing for the post office in Palmyra, Pennsylvania.[4]

Decker was a founding member of the Sculptors Guild and exhibited at its 1939[5] 1940[6] and 1941[7] exhibitions.

Decker was one of the sculptors who exhibited at the 3rd Sculpture International in Philadelphia in 1949.

Personal life

Decker was married twice, from 1934 to 1936 to Duncan Ferguson and to financier Davidson Summers from 1938 until her death in 1979 with whom she had at least one child, Elizabeth Spaulding of Economy, Nova Scotia.[8]

Work

Decker’s work can be found:[9]

References
  1. McGlauflin, Alice Coe, ed., ‘’Who’s Who in American Art 1938-1939” vol.2, The American Federation of Arts, Washington D.C., 1937 p.141
  2. Miller, Donald L. (2002). Lewis Mumford, a Life. ISBN 9780802139344.
  3. http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-house-where-art-was-created-no-61.html
  4. Park, Marlene and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1984 p. 226
  5. Sculptors Guild Second Outdoor Exhibition: 1939, The Sculptors’ Guild, New York, 1939 p. 19
  6. Sculptors’ Guild Travelling Exhibition: 1940-194, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1940 pp. 10–11
  7. Sculptors Guild Third Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition: 1941, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1941 p. 8
  8. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/12/19/davidson-sommers-dies/80cd0c64-54e0-4922-80fc-55da44a3f0fc/
  9. http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=14X303993TF47.17491&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!204573~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Decker%2C+Alice%2C+1901-+%2C+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR
  10. Sculptors’ Guild Travelling Exhibition: 1940-1941, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1940
  11. Sculptors Guild Third Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition: 1941, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1941 p. 8
  12. Sculptors Guild Second Outdoor Exhibition: 1939, The Sculptors’ Guild, New York, 1939 p. 19
  13. Sculptors’ Guild Travelling Exhibition: 1940-1941, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1940
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