Myron Lechay  (1898   -   1972)  Works

Myron Lechay (1898 – 1972)

Myron Lechay was born in Russia in 1898 and moved to the United States in 1906 with his family. He completed his initial art education at the National Academy of Design. Lechay often spent time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in his youth to copy the works of the Old Masters exhibited there. One day at the museum, F.W. Lawlor, a prominent art and antique dealer, observed Lechay painting and was impressed by his skill. Lawlor began to purchase Lechay’s works on a regular basis, enabling him to make a living wage from his art.

As the avant-garde movement gained traction in the New York scene, Lechay became increasingly familiar with the American Modernists, like Stuart Davis, and progressive Europeans, such as the Dadaists. Lechay was a member of the Société Anonyme and worked alongside Davis in East Gloucester, Massachusetts in the summer of 1921.

In the 1920s, Valentine Dudensing started exhibiting Lechay’s work at his gallery and Lechay’s art career launched. His work was exhibited alongside other renowned artists at Valentine Gallery and, in 1932, they orchestrated a retrospective exhibition of his art. Throughout the 1920s, Lechay frequently lived in New Orleans, creating new pieces that received great acclaim from the art community.

Lechay exhibited at many prestigious institutions such as the Carnegie Institute, the Brooklyn Museum, the Newark Museum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His work can be found in public and private collections throughout the United States like the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, New York; the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa; the Davenport Art Museum in Iowa; and the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden in Lincoln, Nebraska, among others.