Anita Weschler (1903–2000) was a sculptor, painter, poet, and author. Weschler came to sculpture almost accidentally, having previously studied fashion design, interior decoration, and painting. Beginning in the 1950s she turned to painting, using plastic resins and synthetic glazes to produce colorful works. Active in the Federal Arts Project, she produced a relief in terra cotta, Early Days at Elkin, for the Elkin, North Carolina post office in 1939. Her 1951 sculpture Victory Ball, in cast stone, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A bronze bust of William Zorach is owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Humanist, an early use of fiberglass as sculptural material, was owned by Warren Allen Smith, later becoming the property of the Institute for Humanist Studies. Other pieces are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and Yale University. Weschler was a founding member of the Sculptors Guild and was a member of the National Association of Women Artists and the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors. She was active as a writer, producing work for numerous art journals and publishing a book of poetry, Nightshade, in 1931. Her papers are held at Syracuse University.
Portrait courtesy of Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
