Presser, Josef

Born in 1909, in Lublin, Russian Poland, Josef Presser arrived in Boston, MA at the age of 12.  Presser received a scholarship to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Presser's studies were followed by a four year sojourn traveling and studying in the great museums of France, Italy and Belgium.  Upon his return to America in 1931, he settled into his studio in Philadelphia, PA where his concern for the poor and socially deprived grew with the urgency of the Great Depression.  By 1940, the artist moved to a studio on 14th Street in the Union Square District, New York City and in 1941 he married Agnes Hart.  The couple bought a number of summer studios in Woodstock, NY, and became members of the Maverick Artist Colony and the Woodstock Artists Association. Presser's last 3 years of his life were spent living and working in Paris. In 1965, he became an Honorary member of Cercle Litte’raire et Artistique, Bruxelles, Belgium. Presser died in 1967.

Presser's works are held among many private and public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze, Italy and the Louvre, Paris, France and others.