Drawing was the most important aspect of art life to Jack Kramer. Before gaining his BA degree at Rhode Island School of Design in 1954, Kramer had studied art in numerous places.
At the age of 15 he attended Vocational High School art classes in Roxbury, Massachusetts that were sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston School Committee. By age 19 he was at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts,interrupting his studies there during the years he served in the U.S. Army. After the war, he completed the coursework and was awarded a traveling scholarship he used to support further study for three years in England, France, and Italy. After finishing his degree at Rhode Island School of Design, he was Oskar Kokoschka’s assistant for 3 summers in Austria.
Kramer eventually settled in the United States and for 26 years taught at Boston University School of Visual Arts. In the 1950s abstract expressionism was a prominent style of painting but Kramer liked figural work. He was the author of, “Human Anatomy and Figure Drawing” that was a text in many art schools. Kramer was also a skilled colorist but applied paint in a broad, expressive way without ever losing sight of the underlying draftsmanship describing his subjects. Landscapes and still life were in his repertoire of subjects but he seemed mostly absorbed with human figure work.
Exhibitions of his work were centered in Massachusetts area galleries and Museums. However, he also exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Kunstsalon Wolfberg, In Zurich Switzerland.
“Study of a Man with Two Chairs” 1963
Image size 18x19
Framed size 25x26,
Deaccessioned by deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Mass.
Study of A Man With Two Chairs