Frederick Joseph Sklenar (1938-2024)
Untitled (tugboats)
Oil on canvas, 1985, 23 ¼” x 13 5/8”
Donated by Elle Finn

Frederick Joseph Sklenar (1938-2024) was a formally trained artist with a long and distinguished career in fine art and illustration. He studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and was raised in an artistic family—his father was a painter, syndicated cartoonist, and art educator, and his grandmother was a noted flower painter. Professionally, Fred served as art director at major publishing houses including Sport Magazine, McGraw-Hill, Penton Publishing, Look and Venture, and later worked for decades with Electronics Magazine, creating cover art that visually documented the evolution of electronics, telecommunications, and smart-grid technologies. As an illustrator, he contributed to national advertising campaigns and produced commissioned portraits of celebrities, sports figures, business and political leaders. In addition to his professional work, he dedicated much of his later life to teaching fine art privately, in schools, and through his church, and was involved with several art organizations—including as a signature member of the Northeast Watercolor Society and past memberships in the Publication Designers’ Society and the NYC Art Directors Club. He also exhibited extensively in one-person and group shows at local, regional, and national galleries, earning numerous awards and being compared to artists such as Norman Rockwell and Edgar Whitney.

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