Art Studio

A stalwart advocate of the arts in Richmond, Virginia, Theresa Pollak was as celebrated as a painter as she was as an educator. Born there to Hungarian immigrants, Pollak’s life spanned three centuries, making her a witness to enormous cultural, political, and social change in the American South. Although Pollak’s style evolved from naturalism to Abstract Expressionism as her career progressed, the depiction of her studio was a recurring subject. Executed when Pollak was just beginning her extended tenure as a teacher, Art Studio honors the inspirations and instruments of artistic production. Pollak’s comfortably furnished, sun-lit studio seems a place of refinement and refreshment, a creative haven to which she retreated to record her “reaction to life.”