Albany Institute acquires Sara Harris paintings, 1920s family photos; Chanukah menorah

‘Backyard Play,’ 1950s, oil on canvas: Harris children in the family’s backyard with neighborhood friends. From left, on the swings are neighbors Richard Luduena and Betty Ann Sleasman with Anita Marie Harris. In the wading pool are Laura Jean Harris and Jonathan Oren Harris.

Albany Institute acquires Sara Harris paintings, 1920s family photos; Chanukah menorah

By Anita M. Harris

Seven paintings, objects and photographs from the collection of Sara Richman Harris (1921-2016) were acquired in November by the Albany Institute of History & Art. The acquisitions reflect the lives of the Harris family and Albany neighborhoods over more than 100 years.

The acquisitions include:

Seven paintings and pastels by Sara Harris.  The works, from the 1950s and 1960s, depict buildings on Clinton Avenue; an imaginary Halloween street scene; an antique store window; and children playing in the Harris’ Parkwood Street backyard in the early 1950s.
Photos of South Pearl Street shopkeepers Harry and Celia Harris and their young children from the early 1900s.
A menorah crafted by Israeli sculptor Chaim Hendin (b. 1920), believed purchased in 1980 at a lecture and demonstration at the Albany Jewish Community Center

Chanukah menorah by Chaim Hendin, from my mother’s collection

The artworks were selected from among more than 400 drawings and paintings in the Sara Richman Harris Collection—many undiscovered until 2016, after Sara’s death. The collection includes art and diaries dating from the 1930s through the 1970s. Harris’ work was last exhibited in Albany in 2008, when she was in her mid-80s.

The materials were donated by Sara Harris’ children, me—Anita M. Harris, a journalist and photographer based in Cambridge, MA; Laura J. Harris-Hirsch of Lebanon, NH; Jonathan O. Harris, MD, of Coral Springs, FL, and the late Alan M. Harris, Esq., of Los Angeles.

Photos of two paintings, Halloween Street Scene and Backyard Play, have been posted to the Institute website.

Sara Richman Harris (1921-2016)

Sara Hilda Richman Harris lived and worked in Albany, for nearly 70 years. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she studied at Girls Latin School in Boston, the University of Chicago, the Art Students League in New York, and SUNY Albany. The mother of four children, in 1957 she and her husband, Raymond Harris, MD, co-founded the national Center for the Study of Aging, where she served as executive director for more than 50 years.

She also served on the board of the Albany Interracial Council; founded and managed both the New York State Health, Education and Welfare Club and the Friendly Visitor Service of the Albany Red Cross. In her later years, she hosted the weekly Albany radio program “Sunday for Seniors.” Throughout, Sara was active in the Albany Artists Group, teaching and exhibiting her artwork in local shows, and often retiring to her basement to paint after her family went to bed.

The Sara Richman Harris Collection

The Albany Institute’s acquisition is the first from the Sara Richman Harris Collection. Works in the collection date from 1935, when Sara was 14, to the mid-1970s.

The collection includes still lifes, abstracts, landscapes, cityscapes and portraits. It also includes more than 1,000 diary pages and letters Sara wrote in the 1940s, starting after she graduated from the University of Chicago and moved to New York City. In the diaries, Sara describes her New York life and loves; her studies at the Art Students League; the impacts of World War II on friends and family, fascism, antisemitism and racism; dance and musical performances, and the beauty of the natural world. The journals end in 1950, after Sara married, gave birth to her first child, and moved to Albany with her husband, Raymond Harris, MD.

The collection offers a unique view of the changing world as seen through the eyes of a brilliant, highly-talented mid-century modern woman. Its trajectory spans the Great Depression of the 1930s, places and people of various genders and races during World War II New York; the domesticity of the post war era, and the freedom and social changes of the 1960s and ’70s.

Most of my mother’s works—which include drawings, oils, watercolors, pastels and encaustics–verge on the abstract. Her portraits have been described as showing penetrating psychological insight. Domestic scenes, in still lifes and folk art, portray the poetic, the primitive and the absurd in everyday life. Her landscapes carry a mystic strain, with lakes, fields and mountains bathed in soft light; some oils are highlighted with drizzles of paint. Experiments in cubism and geometric abstraction range from dreamy pastels to sharp, vibrant colors.

She expresses the joy and wonder she experienced in her life and in the world around her.

The Harris Family of Albany

My siblings and I are grandchildren of Harry and Celia Wade Harris, who were well known in Albany’s Orthodox Jewish community for much of the 20th century. The Institute acquisition includes two family photos from the early 1920s. One photo shows Celia holding her first-born son, Raymond, as a baby; the other is of Harry and Celia with Raymond and their second son, Leon, as young children.

My grandmother, Celia, holding my father, Raymond, in about 1919

My grandmother, Celia, holding my father, Raymond, in about 1919 Grandparents Harry and Celia Harris, with Raymond, right.

Married in New York City after Harry immigrated from Russia/Poland in 1912, Harry and Celia moved to Albany in 1919, soon after Raymond was born. There, they joined Harry’s brother William Gersowitz, a merchant, and William’s family. Harry and Celia established Harry’s Department Store, selling shoes, clothing and other dry goods on South Pearl Street until the mid-1960s. The family lived above the store while their boys were growing up, moving to Summit Avenue when their synagogue, the Sons of Abraham, moved from downtown Albany to Federal Street. Harry served as president of the synagogue, and, later, of the Senior Social Club at Temple Israel.

Harry and Celia’s sons Raymond Harris, MD (1919-1989), and State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Harris (1929-1997), were renowned in Albany and nationally. Son Leon Harris (1926-2010), a successful businessperson, lived in Indianapolis with his family; Willard Harris, MD, (1932-2005), practiced cardiology in Chicago, Los Angeles and Tampa. Joseph’s wife, Susan Schwartz Harris, son Seth, and daughter Brett still reside in the Albany area.

Albany Institute of History & Art

Founded in 1791, the Albany Institute of History & Art,125 Washington Ave., is New York State’s oldest museum. Its collections document the Hudson Valley as a crossroads of culture, influencing the art and history of the region, the state, and the nation. The Institute’s more than 25,000 objects and one million documents illustrate the part the Hudson Valley played in the American story, and our place in history. Permanent exhibits include one of the largest collections of Hudson River School paintings, a history of ancient Egypt, and fine art, ceramics, and furniture.

The personal and professional papers of Raymond and Sara Harris from 1942 to 2009 are available in the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives in the library of the State University of New York at Albany.