The earliest paintings of Sonya Rapoport’s that have survived are from the 1940s, just before and during her studies at UC Berkeley. She called this work “primitive” or “naïve,” probably in the sense of the work of Henri Rousseau or Vasily Kandinsky. Her early influences were eclectic, but she often mentioned artists she’d encountered in New York, including Ben Shahn and Robert Henri. These paintings may be a reaction against her early art training, including at the Massachusetts College of Art, which she complained was academic, stale and uninspiring.
The primary subjects of these paintings include groups of women, some with children, in domestic settings or enjoying leisure time at the pool or beach. Flower arrangements, which she would later explore in a different mode in her Abstract Expressionist work, are often present. Her palette has parallels with Fauvism, and her drawing and paint handling is somewhat raw, with evidence of extensive underpainting.
Rapoport noted that her mentor, painter Erle Loran, expressed his admiration for this work. While she reported feeling disengaged at Berkeley, her studies with teachers including Glenn Wessels and John Haley led her away from this early style and towards more sophisticated representations of space and the figure before her graduation in 1949.
Sonya Rapoport at Berkeley, photographer unknown.
