Fred Machetanz
1908-2002
BORN IN
Kenton, Ohio
KNOWN FOR
Arctic landscape, wildlife and genre painting
Fred Machetanz is the most widely acclaimed artist to continue the traditional frontier image of Alaska into the present day. Focusing on Alaskan animals, Native people, pioneers, and the dramatic landscape, Machetanz’s work is highly sought after.
Machetanz was born in 1908 in Kenton, Ohio, and trained in art at Ohio State University. After working as an illustrator in New York, sailing with a Coast Guard patrol along Alaska’s coast, and serving in the Aleutians with the Navy in World War II.
His oil paintings on masonite employ ultramarine blue underpainting followed by many traditional linseed oil glazes, achieving a luminosity reminiscent both of Renaissance painters and of the twentieth-century painter Maxfield Parrish, who was an early influence on the artist.
