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Ernest Fiene Industrial Scene tempera Ernest Fiene was born in Rhineland, Germany, in 1894. He immigrated to the United States settling in New York City. In the mid-1920s, Fiene began to paint the urban-industrial American reflecting his fascination with the visual drama of the modern man-made world. |
His first cityscapes were of New York City, where he documented through his paintings, such events as the opening of the Holland Tunnel, the establishment of radio-telephone service between New York and London, the first public showing of talking films, and Charles Lindberg's solo transatlantic flight.
Fiene was employed by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project (WPA/FPA) during the 1930s. He began to travel to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, actively seeking icons of the Machine Age. The oil refineries and steel plants of Pennsylvania fascinated Fiene. These early works are characterized by a strong, simple composition with an almost naïve treatment of form. In the mid-1940s, Feine's artwork began to shift to a Cubist treatment of space and form, which appeared more sophisticated but less passionate than earlier works.
Fiene continued to live in New York City, until his death in 1955, at the age of 61.
