Thursday, July 3, 2014

Mia Munzer Le Comte: Biography and Collections






MIA LE COMTE

1909    Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia
1929    Master’s Degree in Fine Arts
1930    Studied under Karl Hofer, Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin
1931    Moved to Paris.  Studied under Oskar Kokoschka
1941    Immigrated to U.S.A.
1942-2002  Lived in Eastern U.S.A., creating hundreds of works of art
            in various styles, genres and themes
2003    Died in Alford, Massachusetts

One-Woman Shows

1938    Feigl Gallery, Prague
1939    Galerie Rousseau (Zborovsky), Paris
1942    Carroll Carstairs, New York City
1970    Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
1974    Tibor de Nagy, New York City
1976    Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
1977    Livingston-Leamont Gallery, New York City
1989    Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut
1992    Wells Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts
1993    Spazi Fine Art Gallery, Housatonic, Massachusetts
1994    Paris-New York-Kent Gallery, Kent, Connecticut
1995    Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, New York
1996    Carie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York
1997    Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, New York
     
Group Shows  (Partial List)

1934    Salon Printemps, Paris
1935    Prague Sezession
1936    Prague Sezession
1937    Prague Sezession
1942    Travelling Exhibition of Czech Artists throughout
the U.S.A. and Canada
1946    San Francisco Museum of Art
1957    Jersey City Museum
1963    Trenton Museum
1964    New York World’s Fair
1967    Institute of History and Art, Albany, New York
1968    Schenectady Museum
1976    Gallery of the Xerox Corporation, Rochester, New York
1980    Jack Gallery in SoHo, New York City



Mia Le Comte --   Page Two


1981    Jack Gallery in SoHo, New York City
1989    Paris-New York-Kent Gallery, Kent, Connecticut
1990    Art of Our Time, Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey
1992    Miami Art International ’92, Miami, Florida
1992    Susanne Fonda Blanchard, New York City
1994    Spazi Fine Art Gallery, Housatonic, Massachusetts
1998    Spazi Fine Art Gallery, Housatonic, Massachusetts
1999    The Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Lenox, Massachusetts

            From 2003 until the present, paintings of Mia Le Comte have been on exhibit in several galleries around the Berkshires, including the Lenox Gallery of Fine Art, Church Street Gallery, Lascano Gallery, and the Berkshire Art Gallery

Collections, Public and Private  (Partial List)

            Museum of Modern Art in Prague
            Ministry of Education in Prague
            Roy Neuberger, New York City
            David Bermant, Rye, New York
            Carol Eiseman, Basking Ridge, New Jersey
            Ingeborg Hecht, New York City
            Hans Blumenfeld, Buenos Aires, Argentina
            John David Hatch, Lenox, Massachusetts
            Robert Strassler, Boston, Massachusetts
            Maureen Stapleton, Lenox, Massachusetts
            Violaine Bachelier-Kaplan
            Carol Schulze, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
            Betsy Dovydenas, Lenox, Massachusetts
            Spertus Institute, Chicago, Illinois
            Walter Matthau, Los Angeles, California
            Henry Kissinger, New York City
            Stephen Schoenfeld, South Egremont, Massachusetts



                       



MIA LE COMTE
1909-2003

In a letter of October 7, 1944 to Mia Le Comte, Albert Einstein wrote, “Your paintings deeply impressed me”.

Mia Munzer Le Comte was born in Prague and received her master’s degree there at the Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture by the time she was 20. She also studied as an exchange student at the Berlin Academy under Karl Hofer. Later she moved to Paris where she worked privately with Oscar Kokoschka and with Paul Colin, making theater design and posters.

Madame Le Comte displayed her works at one-woman shows at the Feigl Gallery in Prague, the Galerie Rousseau in Paris, and at numerous galleries and museums in the USA. Soon after she immigrated to the States, her work was included in an exhibition of modern Czech artists which toured the United States and Canada. Paintings by Le Comte have appeared in group-exhibitions in Prague, Paris, Nice, and from New York to San Francisco. Her works have hung in the Prague Museum of Modern Art and Ministry of Education, as well as in many private collections in Europe and America.

Shortly after her exhibition at the Galerie Rousseau in 1939, Hitler occupied Paris, and Mme. Le Comte fled to the United States, arriving after a harrowing journey which took many months. She left most of her paintings in the custody of a friend, the writer Andre Germain. When she returned to France after the war, her friend had disappeared without a trace, and the paintings have never been located.

The Berkshires were her home from 1966 until 2003. She brought something of Central Europe with her which lent special character to her works. Wit and humor infuse her art. “The enthusiasm – strength—the ebullience – the originality of her work deserve the widest audience.” (Renova Art Gallery)

“I admire the art of Mia Le Comte”.

-- Leonard Bernstein

1 comment:

  1. Trying to find out more about her and her paintings. Found a portrait Marcel Dyf did of her in 1958

    ReplyDelete