Woldemar Neufeld arrived in New York City on New Year’s Day in 1945 and settled into an apartment near Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side. Here Neufeld soon became known as the “artist laureate of the East River.” It was here that he developed his interest in the combination of pen and ink with watercolor to capture the fine details of the bridges and buildings of New York that so inspired him.

“My father didn’t want me to be an artist,” Woldemar Neufeld was quoted as saying. “He wanted me to be an engineer and I wanted to build bridges. But in the 1930s, engineers were peddling apples. So I studied art, and naturally my favorite subjects were bridges.”

Neufeld also worked in oils and color block prints and held a number of successful one-man shows, firmly establishing him in the New York arts scene.

“This exhibit showcases some of my father’s most creative work in watercolor, oil paintings and block prints of Manhattan from 1945-1975.” Laurence Neufeld, the artist’s son, curator of the exhibit, and executor of the Woldemar Neufeld Estate.

Woldemar Neufeld’s work is now held in prominent public and private collections in the United States and Canada including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Kresge Museum and the New York Public Library, to name a few.

An opening reception with the late artist’s son, Laurence Neufeld, and his nephew, Dennis Rice, will be held Friday, Sept.7 from 4:30-7:30 p.m. at Alternatives’ Spaulding R. Aldrich Heritage Gallery, 50 Douglas Road, Whitinsville. The exhibit ends Oct. 26. Regular gallery hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday , weekends and evenings by special appointment. Call (508) 234-6232 for more information.

Image: The Flower Wagon, Block Print, 1947. Used by permission of The Woldemar Neufeld Estate.