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
