Sigmund Abeles

[3] He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards for printmaking, drawing, painting, and sculpture, including Pastel Society of America Hall of Fame honoree in 2004 and most recently the Artists' Fellowship 2017 Benjamin West Clinedinst Medal.

[6] The only child of Samuel and Henrietta Abeles, he was named after his grandfather, a renowned Orthodox rabbi who immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1901.

[1] His father, a Hungarian Jew, was a decorated World War I veteran who used his pension to open up a retail business in Sheepshead Bay.

[7] Spending a great deal of time alone in the rooming house, Sigmund grew a fascination for how many types of people occupy the same domain which had a huge impact and direction on his artwork took.

He was posted to Heidelberg, Germany where he worked as a technical illustrator in a cartography workshop at the US Headquarters Army where he made charts and maps for top secret nuclear war plans.

[8] During his high school years, Sigmund was mentored by Truman Moore Sr., a wood sculptor, who pointed him towards the Boston artist Gerard Francis Tempest whom he later apprenticed with.

There he also made lifelong friendships with fellow students Sidney Hurwitz, Philip Grausman, Jerome Witkin and Ashley Bryan.

He was posted to Heidelberg, Germany where he worked as a technical illustrator in a cartography workshop at the US Headquarters Army where he made charts and maps for top secret nuclear war plans.

He briefly taught adults at a local community art center until a position opened up at the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, MA recommended to him.

He spent that year making large anti Vietnam war color prints as well as a body of terra cotta sculptures from the figure.