John Laska (1918-2009)

Jon Joseph Laska, later John Laska, was born on November 25, 1918, in Portchester, New York. His parents, Isadore Laska and Marya Wojtanoska, were both Polish natives. John Laska's father died when he was five years old and he became a ward of the state. As a young man, John Laska studied at the Art Students League and the New American Artists School in New York. He was a student of Raphael Soyer (1899-1987). Laska served in the U.S. Army during World War II. His unit, the 104th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Timberwolves, fought in France, Belgium, and Germany and helped to liberate the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp at Nordhausen. After the war, he earned a master of fine arts degree at the Art Institute of Chicago and entered a teaching career that would carry on for the rest of his working life. He taught art at University High School in Champaign, Illinois, for three years. From 1954 until his retirement in 1981, he taught at Indiana State Teachers College, now Indiana State University, and State High School or Laboratory High School in Terre Haute, Indiana. Laska died on April 21, 2009, at the age of ninety.

John Laska is an artist new to me. I found a reproduction of his painting Flood Scene, West Terre Haute in a book called Prize Winning Paintings, Representational and Abstract, published in 1962. The painting won an award at the Hoosier Salon in 1960. Judge Irving Shapiro (1927-1994) said of it:

In regard to Mr. John Laska's prize-winning painting in the 1960 Hoosier Salon show, it not only was the finest work in the show, but it is one of the finest oils that I have ever had the good fortune to pass judgment on. I was particularly impressed with the strength and vigor with which it was handled. [. . .] The power, simplicity and honesty of statement with which it was presented made "Flood Scene, West Terre Haute" a painting I will certainly remember for a long time to come.

Another judge, Paul Strisik (1918-1998), remarked: "This painting conveyed a tense dramatic situation very successfully without falling into mere illustration." I don't think we should take that as a swipe at the field of illustration but rather as an attempt to lay down a line between illustration and fine art. The artist himself wrote: "The flood scene is a descriptive kind of work. I do not always paint this way. Most of my more recent production might well be classified as more abstract."

Laska was something of an activist. He was a charter member of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation and the designer of the Eugene V. Debs Award, a large plaque that has been handed out every year but two since 1965. (Hoosier author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007] won the award in 1981.) Laska's art also adorns the interior walls of the Eugene V. Debs Home in Terre Haute. I won't show any of that art here, as it depicts some of the hateful figures, as well as symbols of, a hateful and murderous system responsible for the deaths of countless millions of people, including compatriots of Laska's parents. Instead I will just show his painting, which is, I think, remarkable for its almost abstract handling and composition of a scene that might otherwise be considered a genre painting.

Flood Scene, West Terre Haute, an oil painting by Indiana artist John Laska (1918-2009), purchased in 1960 by Indiana University for its student union. Dimensions 36 x 26 inches.

Original text copyright 2020, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

E. Algerd Waitkus (1914-2000)

Edward Algerd Waitkus was born on January 13, 1914, in Gary, Indiana, to Justin and Emily "Minnie" (Colnitis) Waitkus. His parents were born in Lithuania, and his father ran a grocery store. In 1940, Waitkus was counted in the U.S. census working in the family business. Two years later, on November 25, 1942, he entered service in the U.S. Coast Guard.

E. Algerd Waikus was a watercolorist and also worked in oil. His art seems to have been purely representational, and he seems to have specialized in landscapes. Among his awards and exhibitions:

• Chicago Tribune Art Competition, "Sunday on Mackinac Island," Chicago, 1953
• Old Town Holiday Fair, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 1961
• Dyer Public Library opening, Dyer, Indiana, 1962
• Art Fair of Park Forest Art Center, Park Forest, Illinois, 1963
• Local Michiana Art Exhibition, first prize, representational oil, "The Resting Place," South Bend Art Center, South Bend, Indiana, 1963
• Hoosier Salon, Kenneth M. Kunkel Memorial Prize, "The Dune Cottage," Indianapolis, 1964
• Northern Indiana Art Salon Patrons Association, second place, "Sunday Morning Sunshine," Hammond, Indiana, 1965
• South Bend Art Center, award, representational watercolor, "Indiana Duneland," South Bend, Indiana, 1965
• Indiana State Museum, "Dunes Cottage," Indianapolis, 1969

I discovered the late Mr. Waitkus in The Ford Times Cookbook (ca. 1968). For those who are not familiar with it, Ford Times was a travel magazine issued by the Ford Motor Company. One of the highlights of the magazine were its watercolor depictions of people and places throughout these great United States. I feel certain that Mr. Waitkus had other watercolors in Ford Times, but the one I have illustrates the interior of the restaurant at the Honeywell Center in Wabash, Indiana (see below).

Algerd Waitkus was married to June M. Waitkus. He died on November 16, 2000, at age eighty-six and was buried at Bay Pines National Cemetery in Bay Pines, Florida.

Text copyright 2019, 2024 Terence E. Hanley