Ernest Fiene

"I am interested more in the future of American art than in the past of European art. Out of this new civilization, out of this machine age, a new school of painters will be developed."

Ernest Fiene [1]

Ernest Fiene's art often strove to bring out the humanity of a space while simultaneously deconstructing it into abstract shapes. Born in Elberfeld, Germany in 1894 to Henry and Maria Fiene, his passion and talent for art was noted by his family at an early age. Initially he intended to become an engineer and apprenticed as a teenager with a mining construction company. His desire to avoid conscription into the German army soon compelled him to leave Germany. He fled initially to Holland, and then settled in New York City in 1912. Upon reaching the United States Fiene began to focus on his passion for art. He worked for a decorative painter until he could enroll in the National Academy of Design in 1914. Despite his hard work and great esteem for his teachers he never managed to finish a single picture during his four years of education.

Fiene went on to study at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design. With the assistance of his professors, including Robert Henri he began to exhibit his work and held his first solo exhibition at the McDowell Club. This show proved very successful and gave him exposure to the New York art scene outside of the academic sphere. After exhibiting at the Society of Independent Artists in 1920, Fiene moved part-time to the artist colony in Woodstock, New York. In 1922, art scholar William Murrell wrote a monograph of him as part of what was to become his "Younger Artists Series". Fiene was the first artist profiled and he received considerable notice from the book.

Fiene decided to return to school and study at the Art Students League in New York City in an effort to expand his craftsmanship and modernize his artistic style. It was at the Art Students League that he made connections with prominent lithographic printers George C. Miller and Charles C. Locke, who assisted in the distribution of his paintings through prints. In 1923 he held his first solo exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club, which later became the Whitney Museum of American Art. His success there lead to The New Gallery of New York becoming his exclusive dealer. Having reached a point in his career where his paintings were in high demand Fiene took the proceeds from his sales and built himself a bungalow in Woodstock. 

The fragmentation of modern life and industry were an inspiration for his paintings, and he accentuated these themes through his use of realism and abstraction. He strengthened his attention to color and shape, which can be seen in his depictions of urban architecture. Fiene was asked to exhibit one of his lithographs at the new Whitney Museum of American Art. Juliana Force, the first director of the WMAA, stated that she wanted "the best and the newest, in every sense of the word" [2] for this show.