Discipline: Visual Art

Bena Mayer

Discipline: Visual Art
Region: New York, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 1960, 1961
Bena Mayer (1898-1991) is a painter best known for her portraits. Mayer exhibited in many group shows with the National Association of Women Artists, winning several of its awards, and was a past president of the New York Society of Women Artists. Mayer also helped her husband research and edit several reference books he wrote for artists, including The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, first published in 1940 and now considered a classic in the field. In 1990 she was instrumental in establishing the Ralph Mayer Learning Center, successor to the Artists Technical Research Institute, at the Yale University School of Art. The center supports research and writing on the use of materials and the study of artists' techniques. A show of Mayer's landscapes and portraits was held at Yale in connection with the opening of the institute in September 1990.

Studios

Alexander

Bena Mayer worked in the Alexander studio.

Originally designed to be a visual art gallery, this facility was built in memory of the late John White Alexander (1856-1915) and funded by Elizabeth Alexander and their son James. John White Alexander was highly regarded as a portrait painter and, in the early part of the 20th century, served…

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