JOHN ALBOK
(1894-1982)
Born in Munkacs, Hungary, John Albok learned photography as a boy. He came to the U.S. in 1921 finding work almost immediately as a tailor in New York City. He opened a tailor shop on Madison Ave. and 96th Street, and in his leisure time he continued his interest in photography. He photographed from the window of his shop, and in the neighborhood; this work also included the depression era, which struck him as worse than anything he had seen in Hungary. He won many amateur awards for his work including Eastman Kodak, the New York Herald Tribune, and Camera Club of New York. Exhibits include the Rye Arts Center, “American Dream,” The New York Public Library, “Self Portraits, Prints & Photographs,”a one-man show at the FDR Library, Hyde Park, New York, “New York City During the Roosevelt Years, 1933-1945,” and a retrospective at the Museum of the City of New York in 1982, he died days before the opening of this show. A documentary film was produced on Albok in 1966, “John Albok’s New York,“ Gordon Hyatt, producer. This film aired on CBS and won an Emmy Award nomination. His work is in many collections, including The Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Getty Museum in California, Museum of the City of New York, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Magyar Munkasmozgalmi Muzeum, Budapest, Hungary
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
The Fifth Avenue Public Library, New York, NY
The New York Historical Society, New York, NY
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library - Visual Arts Center, Hyde Park, NY
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Rice University Dept. of Art History, Houston, TX
Swedish Television, Stockholm, Sweden
The New York Camera Club, New York, NY
The Soccer Hall of Fame, Oneota, NY
Rye Arts Center, Rye, NY
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
The Central Park Conservancy, New York, NY
American-Hungarian Heritage Center, New Brunswick, NJ
Rutgers University - Alexander Library, New Brunswick, NJ
Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York City, NY
Hungarian National Museum (Magyar Nemzeti Muzeum), Hungary
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio
The Martin Z. Margulies Collection