Julian Wehr

• Name — Julian Wehr • Birth Name — Julian Wehrfritz • Born — 30 June 1898 • Birthplace — Brooklyn, New York, US • Died — 25 April 1970 • Place of death — New Smyrna Beach, Florida, US • Education — Art Students League • Occupation — Paper Engineer, Sculptor, Artist • Spouse — Marguerite West (unknown–1932; divorced) Julie Laubinger (1933–1970; his death) • Children — 5

Trained at the Art Students League in New York City during the ascendance of Picasso and other modern artists, Wehr's work reflects the abstract renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. His teacher, the noted artist John French Sloan, was a clear influence on Wehr, eschewing realism for the more authentic abstract communication of feeling and subject matter. Wehr used a variety of media to communicate his values of racial and social justice, beauty in nature, and the complexity of the human condition. His sculptures in metal painted in simple black and white, such as "Man Woman and Child," articulate the interdependence, yet separateness of the members of the human family at a time when the nuclear family was the ideal of American culture. At a time of the powerful movement for racial equality, Mr. Wehr addressed racial tensions in “Oppression” with its brutal juxtaposition of forms representing the subjection of African Americans in American society. It brings to mind the memorable photographs of police dogs and fire hoses assaulting black schoolchildren in the 1960s. A fire in 1947 destroyed Wehr's studio and two years of sculpting, save for a mahogany head sculpture of an African American man Wehr had sketched once on a New York City Subway trip.