Charles Turzak Woodcut Prints

Charles Turzak was born August 20, 1899, in Streator, Illinois. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and became a well-known Chicago based artist in the late 1920s by gaining public attention from exhibiting and selling prints of Northwestern University and Chicago landmarks. In 1929 he traveled to Europe to study the master painting and returned to the U.S. during the beginnings of the Great Depression. History of Illinois in Woodcuts, a series of ten prints done in 1934, was made at the height of the Depression and is considered to be a turning point in Turzak’s career. Turzak exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1940, and worked for the Works Progress Administration, completing a mural for the Chicago Post Office. In 1958, Turzak moved to Orlando, Florida were he focused on creating abstract works of art from the 1950s to the 1970s. He painted floral still lifes and marine scenes in the 1970s and 1980s. He died in 1985. Art from Turzak’s early career is a reflection of life during the Great Depression in Chicago and Illinois.

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