John Zwara, Indiana/Hungary (1880-1951), Mountain View

John Zwara Indiana/Hungary (1880-1951) Mountain View, 1940 gouache / watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower. Excerpt from AskArt: Jan Zwara was born December 27, 1880, in Hungary and changed his name to John upon entry into the U.S. Zwara took advantage of a brother in Chicago who offered to set him up there with his own studio. The artist soon succumbed to wanderlust. In 1928 the "Omaha World-Herald" published an article, with help from Zwara’s personal writings, the author traced the artist's route from Chicago and Pittsburgh to Cleveland and Wisconsin; from Ohio and Billings, Montana to Nevada and San Bernadino: from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Salt Lake City and then Denver. Zwara worked in mines, smelters, lumber camps, on the railroad and even digging ditches, all the while living in seedy hotels, hovels and even among the hoboes. While time on the job usually varied from several days to several months, he did spend six years on the construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct. While in Chicago he spent several weeks modeling; "For the ladies sculpture class," declared Zwara, with a twinkle in his eye. Arriving in Omaha sometime in 1922. In 1927 he entered four landscapes in the Sixth Annual Exhibition of Nebraska Artists where one of his paintings was the first to be sold. But then Zwara's constitution began to fail him. The hard lifestyle he had made for himself, the almost fanatical quest for the next sketch, his bad eating habits and eventually his personal hygiene began to change. As late as 1931 the artist maintained a residence in Omaha, but by the time of the artists' next "discovery" in Indiana, the people of Omaha would not have known him. By 1933, Zwara landed in Indianapolis, Indiana. Indianapolis became his new home, and, while Zwara continued to take sketching trips, for the remainder of his life he returned there. He made numerous trips were made to Nashville, Indiana - the Brown County area - and as far as Knoxville, Tennessee and other areas are noted on works that have turned up at auction. In 1934, Zwara was befriended by Alex Vonnegut. Zwara's fall into schizophrenia, or dementia praecox, as it was initially labeled, was by then complete. He apparently lived by sleeping in the streets and subsisting on a diet of bread and coffee. In the spring of 1938 Vonnegut, in attempting to help Zwara with his problems, had him admitted to the Indiana Central State Hospital. Zwara stayed at that institution for six months, all the while producing numerous watercolor studies of the grounds. Then he just walked away - to return to the earlier life he knew. Of the artists' life in the 1940's, it is only known that he continued to sketch and paint. Somehow he was also able to arrange for his work to be exhibited at the yearly Hoosier Salon in 1943, 1944 and 1945. Toward the end of his life the artist was taken in by The Little Sisters of the Poor of Indianapolis. On May 4, 1951, Zwara died while in their care as a result of a heart attack. 10 1/4"H x 10"W (image), 17"H x 17"W (frame)