Fred Press Artwork

ABOUT THE WEBSITE

Fred Press was born on October 14,1919 to Samuel and Rose Press, who emigrated from Russia in the early 1900’s. He was the fourth of five children.   He was married to Alice Bernadette for over 60 years and they had three children, David, Peter and Christopher.

As a teenager he won the Proctor and Gamble Soap Sculpture annual awards for four years in the 1930’s. He studied, and later taught at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. He was known primarily for his sculptures that were reproduced and distributed by Contemporary Arts, Inc. founded in the late 1930’s by he and his brother . 

His paintings have exhibited in many one-man shows and group competitions bringing critical acclaim and prizes leading to his paintings being acquired by private collections as well as at notable institutions such as Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Worcester Art Museum and others. One of his sculptures won first prize at a competition at the Delgado Museum of Art in New Orleans. In the 1990’s, he was commissioned by the United States Navy to create two of the 24 bronze reliefs at the Naval Memorial in Washington, DC, where they are on display. 

Early in the 1950’s, he moved to New York City and for the next three decades, as chief designer and executive Vice President of Rubel and Company, revolutionized the giftware industry on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The Museum of Modern Art, NY awarded him a good design award for his numerous multi-media products.

During the Second World War he was a member of the Sixth Air Force stationed in the Panama Canal Zone and he rose to the rank of Tech Sgt. as the Managing Editor of the Caribbean Breeze, the official publication of the group. This assignment resulted in writing many articles to help educate the soldiers to the surrounding area’s culture and history. Much of the knowledge gained during this time was used later as subjects of paintings and sculptures.  He also later wrote articles for the Christian Science Monitor. In 1962 he wrote “Sculpture at your Fingertips” and in the 2000’s wrote Remembering The Caribbean Breeze and John Paul Jones.  As part of his literary contributions were illustrations for a number of books.

Fred Press died on August 3, 2012 at the age of 92 .