Original Alvena Seckar Canvas Oil Painting Abstract Landscape Pompton Lakes New Jersey 20x28

Original oil painting on stretched canvas by listed New York artist, Alvena Seckar (1916-2012, NY). Abstract landscape of mountain cliffs at Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. Signed on lower-left corner, “Seckar”. In good condition with light wear on the back of the canvas. This painting has been to a professional art conservator to repair paint loss in areas and varnished (costing $350). Comes framed with an antique 3" gold leaf wood frame, measuring 26x34. Painting canvas measures 20” x 28”.

About the Artist:

Alvena Vajda Seckar was born to Slovak immigrants in McMechen, West Virginia. Her father was a coal-miner, and the family moved more than twenty times to wherever the work was, from one mining camp to the next. The family was poor, often living under unhealthy conditions, but the cultural life of Slovak traditions proved to provide a rooted and rich life for the children.

One of Alvena's teachers in Allentown, Pennsylvania recognized her artistic talent and made it possible for her to find a patron and study at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art. She continued her education at the University of Pennsylvania, transferred to New York University and received her Bachelors in 1939 and her Masters in 1949.

While at NYU her career began when she “was sent to a book publisher to do illustrations.” Adding decorations to other people’s work was not to be her fate. Her deep convictions got the better of her in 1947 when she attended the first World Youth Conference in Prague.

Upon her return, she began to see art as a means of political communication. She wanted to “consider myself a political artist.” In 1952 her book Zuska of the Burning Hills was a New York Herald-Tribune Spring Festival Honoree and was placed on The New York Times list of the Hundred Best Books published for children. Zuska is only one of her fabulous works.