Fay Kleinman
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Fay Kleinman (born 1912) is an internationally recognized American painter. She has also been known by her married names, Fay Skurnick, then Fay Levenson.
Most of her work is oil on canvas, but she has done some mixed-media work and watercolor. She has exhibited in museums in New York and Massachusetts and in galleries throughout the country. She is the co-founder of the Becket Arts Center in Becket, Massachusetts.
She continues to paint into her nineties.
She is the mother of theater historian Davi Napoleon and the grandmother of Randy Napoleon, a jazz guitarist, and Brian Napoleon. She has painted portraits of her daughter and both her grandsons. One portrait of Randy at ten years old was purchased in 2005 by the Ypsilanti District Library in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where it hangs in front of the children's collection. Another painting of Randy and paintings of Brian were included in a 2006 show at the Ann Arbor District Library, Ordinary People, in which Kleinman showed the extraordinary qualities of "ordinary" individuals.
In addition to portraits, she has done abstracts, still lifes, and landscapes. She is perhaps best known for her "Zayde" series, paintings created from sketches her father did for her daughter based on stories her daughter, then three, made up for him. The works, that have been compared to those of Paul Klee, include fanciful figures and places.
Kleinman has sold many paintings in her senior years. In 2007, the University of Michigan purchased a mixed media self-portrait of a woman reading a newspaper. It is permanently displayed in the University's new geriatric center.
She has survived two husbands, Jack Skurnick, who died in 1952 and was the father of Davida, aka Davi. Skurnick was a record producer and violinist. She later married Emanuel Levenson, a pianist and music director of an opera company who taught music at The New School in New York City. He co-founded the Becket Arts Center with her.
