Reyna Ullman Youngerman, Lady in Red, oil on canvas, 31.5 by 23.5 inches. Signed lower right.
Reyna Youngerman, a Yale educated artist from Connecticut, twice the recipient of Tiffany Foundation Fellowships, came to Miami Beach in September 1948, just as a hurricane was arriving. Not knowing what to expect she set up her easel on 23rd Street and the beach to paint the storm. “The sky turned purple, the water a deep green, a color I’d never seen before. I had to hold onto my canvas. I was almost blown away. People thought I was out of my mind. The light was so brilliant, so different, that I began painting scenery outdoors.” Youngerman spent the rest of her life painting South Florida.
Charles Whited, writing for the Miami Herald (June 9, 1988) said, “Youngerman’s works capture what is past and gone, like portraits of an aging, beautiful woman you once knew. The Miami harbor broods at dusk, its skyline in purple shadow, lights glowing: She did that years ago from the Venetian Causeway, finishing by the light of her car’s headlights.”
Reyna Ullman Youngerman, oil on board, 12 by 16 inches. Signed lower left.
The art critic Nellie Bower of the Miami Herald, March 28, 1954 said of Youngerman: “Reyna’s Golden Slippers is without question one of the handsomest paintings in the whole show. Reyna is one of the few artists represented, whose work has taken a decided change for the better; she has emerged from a static period and evolved a new and much livelier technique of thin paint-showing texture. Whether she achieved this by herself or as the result of study with a new master, I do not know. Twilight Light her other contribution is a study in blue and holds a mysterious charm.”
Reyna Ullman Youngerman, Musicians, oil on canvas, 17.75 by 35.75 inches. Signed lower right.
When the Miami Beach Festival of the Arts was first established in February 1968, Youngerman was festival chairwoman. When she died in 1992 at the age of 89, the Miami Herald noted her passing. “Reyna Youngerman of Bay Harbor Islands, an artist famous for memorializing Miami’s memories on canvas…spent 44 years painting the city, its structures, and its moods. She was forever fascinated by all the things that make Miami unique: light, sky, water, trees, and people.
Reyna Youngerman, shown working on a canvas, was the chairwoman of the first Miami Beach Festival of the Arts in 1964. Miami Herald, February 9, 1984.
Born: 1902, New Haven, Connecticut. Died: June 12, 1992, Miami Beach. Education: Yale University, School of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, won Weir Painting Prize and English Scholarship; School of Fine Arts; Art Students’ League; with Wayman Adams, Alexander Brook, Jerry Farnsworth. Membership: Blue Dome Fellowship; Miami Art League; Miami Watercolor Society; Palm Beach Art League; Art Guild of Boca Raton; Miami Artists Association; National Women Artists; American Artists Professional League; Copley Society; Connecticut Academy of Fine Art; New Haven Paint and Clay Club; Paint and Palette Club. Exhibits: Hartford, Conn., November 1931, portraits; Junior League of Waterbury, Conn., August 1931, crayon sketches of children; Arts and Crafts Exhibit, New Haven, Conn., May 1937, 1st prize, Peonies; Arts and Crafts Exhibit, Hartford, Conn., May 1945, 1st prize, best portrait, Deborah; Arts and Crafts Exhibit, May 1946, still life; Pan American art exhibit, Miami Beach Art Gallery, April 1949, honorable mention, Mexican Dancer; Miami Beach Art Gallery, May 1949, Portrait of my Grandfather and Whither, (portrait of toil worn working man); International Art Exhibit, Columbus Hotel, New York City, October 1949; Miami Beach YMHA, November 1949; Temple Emanuel, Fort Lauderdale, one-man exhibit; Palm Beach Art League, 32nd Annual Members’ Exhibition, March 1950, oils, Still Life with Fruit and Deborah; Blue Dome Fellowship at Miami Beach Art Center, April 1950, honorable mention, oil portrait, Lili; Boca Raton Art Guild, first exhibit, at Town Hall and Library, April 1950; Miami Beach YMHA, April 1950, Portrait of a Spanish Lady and still life, Textures; Lear School, on the Bay at 10th street, May 1950, thirty oils, pastels and watercolors, including Wither, The Visitor, Captain’s Cabin, Mrs. Parnell, Beach Fire; Eve Tucker Galleries, Alton Road, Miami Beach, October 1950, Textures (pictured Miami Daily News, October 29, 1950); Dade County Federation of Women’s Clubs, Ring Theater, Miami, November 1951, yellow ribbon, Grandfather; Poinciana Art Exhibit, Burdine’s Auditorium, June 1952, 75 artists exhibiting, Miniature Poinciana; Blue Dome Fellowship, Miami Beach Library and Art Center, April 1952, first prize portraiture, The Confirmant; Lowe Art Gallery, 1st Membership Show, University of Miami, October-November 1952, portrait, Mona; Roney Plaza Hotel, Miami Beach, November 1952, The Card Game; Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami, January 1953, The Lesson; Sea Isle Gallery of Contemporary Art, February 1953, 20 paintings; Miami Women’s Club, Artists and Writers Breakfast, February 1953, Captain Jack; Miami Boat Show Art Exhibit, Dinner Key auditorium, February 1953; 4th Annual Exhibit, Art Guild of Boca Raton, March 1953; Blue Dome Fellowship, Miami Beach Art Center, March 1953, first award, portrait, The Lesson; Sea Isle Gallery of Contemporary Art, sponsored by City of Miami Beach, November 1953, Contemplation; Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami, December 1953, honorable mention, La Montaigne, also Siesta Key; Blue Dome Fellowship, Miami Beach Art Center, March 1954, Golden Slippers, Twilight City; Palm Beach Art League, 36th Annual Members’ Exhibition, March 1954, Abandoned; Butler Institute of American Art, July 1954; Miami Boat Show 9th Annual at Dinner Key Auditorium, February 1955, Still Life and Rainy Morning Key West; Palm Beach Art League 38th Annual, March 1956; Miami Watercolor Society, at Miami Beach Art Center, May 1956, Brick Yards; Miami Boat Show, Dinner Key auditorium, February 1957, honorable mention, seascapes, other medium, Key Largo; Gulfstream Park, Turf Club, one-man exhibit, March 1958; Blue Dome Fellowship Annual, at Miami Beach Art Center, April 1958, Vecchio Ghetto and Self Portrait; Miami Watercolor Society at Miami Beach Art Center, May 1958, Carousel; The Gallery Restaurant, Coral Way, September 1958, River Arno; The Gallery Restaurant, Coral Way, November 1958, one-man exhibit; Coconut Grove Playhouse, first membership show, May 1959; Lowe Art Gallery, Beaux Art exhibit, May 1959; Eden Roc Hotel, Miami Beach, July 1960, one-man exhibit; Miami Artists Association, at Gallery Restaurant, Coral Gables, August 1960; Miami Artists Association at Miami Beach Art Center, November 1960,Yemenite Singer; El Centro Gallery at the McAllister Hotel, Miami Beach, February 1st thru 18th 1961, one-man exhibit; Norton Gallery, West Palm Beach, one-man exhibit, February 5 thru 19, 1961, twenty paintings; Jordan Marsh Galleries, Biscayne Blvd., March 1968, including, Approaching Storm, City Harbour-Miami, Summer Heat, In the Meadows and Beach Fire; Hemispheres Galleries, 1950 Ocean Drive, Hallandale, February 1971, one-man exhibit; Provinetown Gallery; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Yale Art Gallery; Waldorf Galleries, Montreal; Pennsylvania Academy; Nationale Palazzi des Arts, Cuba..
