1911-1967

Theme/Style – Impressionism, Modernism, Allegory

Media – Oils, murals, watercolors

Artistic Focus – Like his political views, Frede Vidar’s art was difficult to categorize, and was spoken of by Vidar himself as “largely an emotional matter, not a studied and carefully calculated thing.” Vidar preferred painting city scenes and people, rather than flowers and still lifes, and he was declared by one critic “the finest draftsman this town has had in recent years.”

Career Highlights –

• Frede Vidar began his art studies as a child at the Royal Academy in his native Denmark, before moving to San Francisco with his parents. There he entered the California School of Fine Arts, and also studied at the Academie Julien and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin.
• After studying with Matisse and Dufy in Paris in 1933, Vidar returned to San Francisco.
• In 1934 he was one of the artists selected to produce murals for the Coit Tower project. His mural, Department Store, depicted the interior of a typical department store of the time, including a toy shop, wine shop, fabric counter, clothing departments, and a soda fountain, all populated with employees and customers.
• Once World War II broke out, Vidar joined the United States Army and served as a combat artist.
• He settled in New Jersey after the war, teaching at Washington University in St. Louis and at the University of Michigan.

The Gallery proudly represents the Estate of Frede Vidar.

Additional biographical material and full bibliographic references are available upon request.

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