Julian Wehr

Julian Wehr was born Julian Wehrfritz in 1898 in Brooklyn, NY. His father, a German immigrant, came to the United States on S.S. Elba. Known as the "American Master of Animated Books", he invented and patented the animated children's book that contained moveable paper parts using tabs, delighting children in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. He was a master illustrator, using color and active drawings to bring the characters to life. The over 30 animated books Wehr created are highly collectible and there is a collection of his work located at the University of Virginia's Albert and Shirley Small Collections Library, which has a section specializing in children's literature. Titles include Finnie the Fiddler and Noah's Ark. Recently new editions of two of these books were published and are available online at http://www.wehranimations.com.

Although animated books were a great source of pride and family income during the financially difficult years of World War II, Wehr's artistic passion was for sculpting. Trained at the Art Students League in New York City during the ascendance of Picasso and other modern artists, Wehr's work reflects the abstract renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. His teacher, the noted artist John French Sloan, was a clear influence on Wehr, eschewing realism for the more authentic abstract communication of feeling and subject matter.

Mr. Wehr used a variety of media to communicate his values of racial and social justice, beauty in nature, and the complexity of the human condition. His sculptures in metal painted in simple black and white, such as "Man Woman and Child," articulate the interdependence, yet separateness of the members of the human family at a time when the nuclear family was the ideal of American culture. At a time of the powerful movement for racial equality, Mr. Wehr addressed racial tensions in “Oppression” with its brutal juxtaposition of forms representing the subjection of African Americans in American society. It brings to mind the memorable photographs of police dogs and fire hoses assaulting black schoolchildren in the 1960s. Mr. Wehr married twice and had four children. He was an adoring father and was happiest when working in his studio and being with his family. He died in 1970 at the age of 72.