Eugene Ludins

Eugene Ludins (March 23, 1904 in Mariupol Russian Empire – May 20, 1996 in New York City) was a leading regional American painter and academic.

His paintings are in the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art, and his works have been shown in solo exhibits in Woodstock, New York, New York City, the Dorsky Museum at SUNY in New Paltz, New York, and Albany, New York, as well as in Iowa.

His representational art, often fantastic and surrealistic, fell into obscurity after 1948, concurrent with the advent of Abstract Expressionism and his move to teach at the University of Iowa. Only in the early 21st Century did he regain national recognition, posthumously. and he moved with his parents, David and Olga Ludins, to America when he was a few months old. They settled in the Bronx, There, in 1932, he met fellow Woodstock artist Hannah Small, who was then married to (but separated from) artist Austin Mecklem; later, they eloped to New Mexico, and upon returning, moved to their own house in Woodstock.

From 1941 to 1942, Luden's Fish Hunt was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, but did not win any awards in their annual show of American paintings and sculpture.

World War II and later career At the age of 40, he enlisted in the Army; he served in the American Red Cross during World War II in Okinawa in the Pacific theater of war. The Times also noted a solo exhibit of his drawings in 1958, calling them "light ... a bit of welcome relief."

Ludins taught for many years at the University of Iowa starting in 1948, until he retired in 1969. He was one of a number of W.P.A. artists who had gone to teach art at U. of Iowa, all without academic credentials, including his more famous peer, Grant Wood, although Ludins would stay there for 30 years.

He moved back to Woodstock, and lived there in his retirement from 1969 until his death in 1996.

There followed an exhibit of about 60 of the same pieces in 2013 at the New York State Museum.