William Frederick Kaeser Indiana / Germany, (1908 - 1987) country landscape with house oil on board signed lower right. From Indianapolis, William Kaeser was a figurative artist who exhibited at the Hoosier Salon, and World's Fair in New York, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a painter for the WPA, Works Progress Administration. Social Concern Marks Kaeser's Work, Indianapolis Star, January 11, 1981 It's not too surprising to learn that William Kaeser frequently reads the works of John Steinbeck; he finds that the Nobel Prize-winning novelist did with words what he aims to do with oil paints and pastels. Like Steinbeck, Kaeser creates vivid portraits of common Americans dealing with the pain and joy and toil of everyday life. And like Steinbeck, a strong social concern lies beneath it all - concern for the poor and unemployed, concern for the ways society can manipulate its less fortunate members. "I told my wife I wish I could paint a picture as powerful as he can write a story," said Kaeser, an energetic and engaging man of 72. "He did much the same thing in writing that we did in painting - the relationship between the two is just amazing." The "we" in that statement are Kaeser and the group of regional artist who dominated the Indianapolis art scene in the 1930's and 40's - artists such as Floyd Hopper, Cecil Head and the late Simon Baus. Kaiser still paints almost daily, as amply demonstrated by the pictures which fill the walls, hallways and closets of his large Irvington home. He reminisced there recently about his life as an artist, a portion of which is the subject of his first one-man show in years, "William Kaeser: Early Works, 1934-1944," currently at the Indianapolis Art League. It is clear that there have been two dominant influence on Kaeser's artistic development: the mind-boggling inflation he witnessed as a youngster in the post-World War I Germany and the Great Depression he lived through in this country. As he put it, "Those were the days when life was tough . . . and nobody realizes that today." In his native Erfurt, now in East Germany, Kaeser recalls buying candy on his way to school in the morning - it would have been too expensive by lunchtime; before his family emigrated to this country in 1923, he remembers his father paying off debts with basketsful of near-worthless cash. A decade later, he had graduated from John Herron School of Art and, unable to find a job, spent a year at Indiana University earning teaching certificates in art and German. Although they were certificates he never put to use, he did have one offer - to teach both subjects in South Dakota. The prospect didn't thrill his wife, Mildred, he recalled with a smile, but in any case, he couldn't afford to travel there for the interview. It was in the depths of the Depression, however, that Kaeser became a local pioneer of sorts, creating a legacy that is still growing; he was the first instructor in the organization that has become today's Indianapolis Art League. That came about in 1934 when Kaeser was hired in the adult education project of the WPA, the old Works Progress Administration which created jobs for hundreds of unemployed artists, writers and actors in the New Deal of the 1930s. The Art League's wealth of classes and its modern facility at 820 East 67th Street is a far cry from those early days. Kaiser and his band of students met at places like the old Kirschbauns Center, the American Settlement House, School 66 and the second floor of a general store at Troy and Carson avenues. When Kaeser left the WPA program in 1938, the class he and subsequent instructors had built up reorganized itself into the Art Student's League - modeled after the New York organization of the same name - which was the immediate forerunner of today's Indianapolis Art League. Kaeser then took a job as an illustrator with the Indiana Employment Security Division, a job he held until his retirement in 1970. "(Fine) art's really my life, but you've got to do something to support yourself," Kaeser acknowledge, recalling how, after a wordy of graphic design or cartooning, he would often return to his studio and plunge into a painting to keep his creative juices flowing. "To me, (the job) was a way to exist while I did the other." He has never put down the paint brush, and today, as in the 1930s, his main subject is people - often in groups - in an image that reflects their place in history. And always, there is a social concern. "I like to express an idea that's a lasting idea . . . to tell a story about what is happening at this time," Kaiser said, noting that he's currently working on a painting influenced by current high levels of unemployment. For these same reasons, he reveres German Expressionists such as George Grosz and Kaethe Kollwitz, artists who turned to the poor and downtrodden as subjects of art that was satiric and polemical. Not surprisingly, Kaeser was most influenced in this country by Robert Henri and his followers, the so-called "Ash Can School" of realists. In the early 20th century, they shocked sensibilities by turning away from the genteel subjects and techniques of academic painting to find inspiration in America's vibrant urban life and its masses of common folk. The Ash Can School remained influential during the Depression, Kaeser recalled, although it changed gradually, both in terms of style and subject matter, as the regionalism movement took hold. Painters and muralists such as Missouri's Thomas Hart Benton - who influence on Kaeser is obvious in the flowing human figures engaged in honest toil in many of the works at the Art League - showed that New York need not always be the center of the American art experience. Kaiser, who also reveres Picasso's early Cubist works, even had a brief fling with abstraction. He readily admitted, though, "that it wasn't - how do they say it - my ‘bag.' I felt like it didn't belong to me; I felt like I had to express myself with figures, with people." One example of his abstract work is included at the Art League, however; a symbolic, geometric "portrait" of Kaeser's old friend, the late Irving Leibowitz, a longtime newsman with the old Indianapolis Times. The work is particularly memorable, he recalled, because he jokingly placed a $10,000 price on it when it was first shown - an act which kept "Leibo" answering questions for some time. Despite his devotion to a particular form of American realism, Kaeser recalled how many of his works were greeted as radical departures. "When I did the paintings in the (Art League) show, many people at that time through I was an extreme modern partner - I was too modern for many of those people." he chuckled in amazement. "What they wanted was a nice, serene Brown County Landscape." Kaiser is bothered somewhat by glaucoma these days and, ironically, the condition appears to be causing him to return to a more impressionistic technique, with looser brush strokes and larger blocks of bright color, like he used in the early 1930s. That was before four years as an Army Air Corps Illustrator in World War II led him to greater concentration on fine detail. Even though Kaeser words daily at his easel, it is clear that the chief priority in his life is his wife, who has been an invalid for a number of years, Mildred Kaeser was a student of the first WPA class he taught - way back in 1934 - and one quickly sense that their relationship is more important to him that all the paint he's put on canvas since. "She comes first, she comes first," he said. "She wrote me a letter every day when I was in the Army - that's a lot of letters. I always thought that if anything ever happened to her, I'd gladly spend the rest of my life taking care of her." Submitted by Justin Vining, Researcher and Historian of Indiana artists.
"Unemployment Line" 20" x 24" acrylic on board, signed lower right. Lightly cleaned; recent frame. The following biography is from the fineestateart.com website: William Kaeser, husband to Mildred Kaeser, was born in Durlach, Germany but came to Indiana as a child, eventually settling in Irvington. He was a graduate of John Herron Art Institute and Indiana University and also studied in New York and Germany under teachers such as William Forsyth, Eliot O’Hara, and Frank Schoonover. He served as President of the Indianapolis Artist’s Club and the Indiana Federation of Art Clubs. He was also a member of the Indianapolis Press Club and the American Legion. Between 1937 and 1942, he was part of a group commissioned by the Treasury Department to paint murals in post offices all over the U.S. One of these murals that he painted can be seen at the Pendleton, Indiana post office. Kaeser painted works that were reflective of the time period, showing subject matter of Midwestern scenes, people, and traditions. In particular, he was very fond of portraying the circus. He believed that Indiana artists should stick to Indiana-themed material. He also enjoyed painting plants and flowers, which can be seen in many of his works. His most famous, titled The Green Thumb was shown at the International Flower Show in New York. Further, Kaeser worked as a staff artist for the state in the Employment Security Division of Indiana, making pamphlets and publications. During this time he won a Presidential citation for inventing the “Employ the Physically Handicapped Symbol.” One of his most noteable achievements was during the end of the Great Depression, at which time he was given money by the WPA to initiate the project of organizing art classes at the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center in downtown Indianapolis. With that money, he helped establish an art league, which is known today as the Indianapolis Art Center in Broad Ripple Village. When he formed this league, he met with students to host classes in the old governor’s mansion, Holiday Park, the carriage house of Elmer Tafflinger, and various barns and backyards. He exhibited his work at the New York World’s Fair, the Carnegie Art Institute in Pittsburgh, the Corcoan Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy for Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Hoosier Salon, and the National Gallery in Washington D.C.. Today, Kaeser’s paintings are on display at Indiana University, Indiana State University, Culver Military Academy, Methodist Children’s Home, Indianapolis Public Schools, and the Employment Security building. To see this biography on our site, visit: https://fineestateart.com/artists/william_frederick_kaeser
William Frederick Kaeser American / Indiana, (1908-1987) Cole Brothers Circus scene with elephants oil on canvas signed lower left. Provenance: From a private collector in Zionsville / Indianapolis. From Indianapolis, William Kaeser was a figurative artist who exhibited at the Hoosier Salon, and World's Fair in New York, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a painter for the WPA, Works Progress Administration.
William Frederick Kaeser (Indiana, 1908-1987) industrial harbor scene oil pastel signed and dated 1935 lower right. From Indianapolis, Kaeser was a Social Realist and figurative artist who exhibited at the Hoosier Salon, World's Fair in New York, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a painter for the WPA.
William Frederick Kaeser (Indiana / Germany, 1908 - 1987) old man in the woods with cane and pipe oil on board signed lower right. 8 1/2"H x 11 1/2"W (sight) 16"H x 18 3/4"W (frame)
William Frederick Kaeser (Indiana, 1908-1987) mother and children in a museum oil on board signed lower right. 15 3/4"H x 11 1/2"W (sight), 25 3/4"H x 21 1/4"W (frame)
William Frederick Kaeser (American, 1908-1987) Still Life with Flowers pastel on paper signed lower right. WPA artist from Indianapolis. Exhibited at the Hoosier Salon, NY World''s Fair, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1930s and 1940s. 14" x 17"
William Frederick Kaeser (Indiana; 1908 - 1987) Autumn Landscape Oil on board Signed "William F. Kaeser" LL. From Indianapolis, William Kaeser was a figurative artist who exhibited at the Hoosier Salon, and World's Fair in New York, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a painter for the Works Progress Administration. 8" x 10" (image)
William Frederick Kaeser (Indiana; 1908 - 1987) Autumn Landscape Oil on board Signed "William F. Kaeser" LL. From Indianapolis, William Kaeser was a figurative artist who exhibited at the Hoosier Salon, and World's Fair in New York, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a painter for the Works Progress Administration. 8" x 10" (image)
William Frederick Kaeser (American; 1908 - 1987) Flight From the Dustbowl Pastel on paper Signed Lower left. From Indianapolis, William Kaeser was a figurative artist who exhibited at the Hoosier Salon, and World's Fair in New York, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a painter for the Works Progress Administration. 18" x 24" (image)
William Frederick Kaeser (American, 1908-1987), Social Realist industrial harbor scene; oil pastel; 14 3/4" x 11 3/4"; signed and dated 1935 lower right. From Indianapolis, Kaeser was a figurative artist who exhibited at the Hoosier Salon, World's Fair in New York, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a painter for the WPA.
William F. Kaeser (1908-1987, IN) 10 x 12, oil on board, signed lower right, Election, '76", depicting Jimmy Carter in middle of both Ford and Carter supporters at campaign rally"
Indiana painter. He studied with William Forsyth, Clifton Wheeler, and Oakley Richey. He exhibited from the 1930s-70s at the Hoosier Salon, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and the Worlds Fair New York (1939).
Indiana painter. He studied with William Forsyth, Clifton Wheeler, and Oakley Richey. He exhibited from the 1930s-70s at the Hoosier Salon, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and the Worlds Fair New York (1939).
