Holcha Krake | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 6, 1885 Karlby Sogn, Denmark |
| Died | January 13, 1944 (aged 58) New York, New York |
| Known for | Textile artist |
| Spouse | William H. Johnson (m. 1930) |
Holcha Krake (1885-1944) was a Danish born textile artist, ceramist, watercolorist and the wife of the Harlem Renaissance artist William H. Johnson.
Krake was born on April 6, 1885, in Karlby Sogn, Denmark. [1] Krake studied in textile design in Sweden, Norway. and Denmark. In 1929 she met the artist William H. Johnson (1901-1970) when both were in France. They were married in Denmark in 1930 and resided in Norway for a time before settling in New York in 1938. [2] Johnson often used Krake as a subject. [3] [4]
Krake died of breast cancer in New York City on January 13, 1944. [2] [3] [1] Her work is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. [5] In 2019 the Florence County Museum in Florence, South Carolina held an exhibition of the couple's work called Willie and Holcha. [6]
The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the largest of the New Deal art projects. It was created not as a cultural activity, but as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans to create murals, easel paintings, sculpture, graphic art, posters, photography, theatre scenic design, and arts and crafts. The WPA Federal Art Project established more than 100 community art centers throughout the country, researched and documented American design, commissioned a significant body of public art without restriction to content or subject matter, and sustained some 10,000 artists and craft workers during the Great Depression. According to American Heritage, “Something like 400,000 easel paintings, murals, prints, posters, and renderings were produced by WPA artists during the eight years of the project’s existence, virtually free of government pressure to control subject matter, interpretation, or style.”
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Media related to Holcha Krake at Wikimedia Commons