Lawrence Lebduska

1894 - 1966

Lawrence Lebduska was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1894.  His parents returned to their native country of Czechoslovakia when he was five, as his father's business in America expired at that time. His father, a stained glass maker, sent Lebduska to study and be trained in the craft of making stained-glass and in decorating at a technical and chemical school run by his father's company.  When he was 18, Lebduska and his family returned to New York. Lebduska later participated in the WPA's Art Project in New York but little else is known about his life.  He started painting fantasies and fables in his spare time around 1912, on his return to the United States, but for the first few years he painted mostly for his own pleasure or for friends.  He was widely exhibited and quite popular in the 1930s and through the early 1940s, after which he disappeared from the art scene for almost twenty years. Lebduska painted pastorals and fantasies based on childhood recollections, fairy tales, Czech folklore, biblical scenes, and personal observation.  On his canvases, animals, often horses and occasionally unicorns, frolic under bucolic conditions and people are surrounded by colorful, almost surreal reminders of nature.  Lawrence Lebduska’s eye for fantasy and his love of animal fables, combined with his exceptional ability to draw and use color, make him one of the more important folk artists of the century. ²

Lawrence Lebduska was included in the seminal book by Sidney Janis They Taught Themselves