Samuel Feinstein (1915-2003)

Samuel Lawrence Feinstein was born in Russia on February 7, 1915, and immigrated through Ellis Island with his family five years later.  He was raised in Philadelphia and graduated with honors in 1936 from the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, where he later taught.  At the age of 19, Feinstein was awarded his first solo show at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and was invited to exhibit in the American Masters show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Beyond his extensive exhibiting in the 1930s and 40s, he also worked as a commercial artist in advertising and taught at the Chestnut Hill Academy.

During World War II, Feinstein served as an illustrator for the U.S. Army Medical Corps, while also being introduced to filmmaking. After the war, he concurrently resumed his teaching career and began directing small documentary films.  During his tenure as supervisor of classes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, he photographed and became assistant director of the first art documentary produced by the museum.

During this period, Feinstein’s painting turned increasingly toward abstraction. From 1949 to 1952, Feinstein attended the classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown and in New York. This experience led to his creation of a documentary film titled Hans Hofmann, co-written with Hofmann, but filmed, edited, and produced as a solo venture by Feinstein. Hofmann fully endorsed the film, which premiered in 1999 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Feinstein became a correspondent and contributing editor for Art Digest during the early 1950s, writing many reviews and features, including those of the Arensberg Collection and the Whitney Annual.  He accepted a position at Pratt Institute and began teaching his own private classes during this period.  When Hofmann ceased teaching in 1958, he approached Feinstein about taking over as instructor. Feinstein declined the offer, instead opting to nurture and promote his own workshops, which thrived for more than 50 years in New York, Philadelphia, Princeton, Toronto, and each summer on Cape Cod.

After exhibiting in New York, Provincetown, and Philadelphia from the 1930s through the 1950s, Feinstein ceased showing and withdrew from the commercial demands of art.  He rejected the gallery world of dealers and critics while he continued to paint and teach privately until his death in Dennis, MA on June 10, 2003, at the age of 88.

Source: The Samuel L. Feinstein Trust