Leonard Pytlak (AM 1910-1998) � Maternite Ailbe � Screenprint, ed. unknown, ca. 1940, signed in pencil, 12 x 15 �, created for the NYC WPA. This piece is in excellent condition.


Pytlak studied art at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art and at the Art Students League, New York. As this was the troubling times of the Great Depression most of his lithographic work was published by the New York Chapter of the WPA. Around 1940 he began experimenting with silkscreen printing. He was one of the first artists to be included in the silkscreen unit of the Graphic Arts Division of the New York Federal Arts Project. At this time he also founded the National Serigraph Society. His work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the British Museum, the Illinois State Museum WPA collection, the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.