I have not been blogging that long for Luna & Stella, but already interesting things have happened. For example, one customer who found the blog decided Suzanne’s Mom was OK and probably Suzanne’s business was, too. She became a Luna & Stella customer.
Another interesting thing occurred after I blogged about an artist I once knew, Lucille Corcos. I had written her up with the goal of creating an entry for her on Wikipedia. (The entry is still to come. I need a good block of time to make the changes Wikipedia asked for.)
Soon I began to notice in my WordPress site statistics that someone was doing Internet searches on “Lucille Corcos.” I wondered if it might be one of her sons. Sure enough, I eventually received an e-mail from artist Joel Corcos Levy, saying, “Who are you and when were you in our house?” So I e-mailed him, and we had a nice back-and-forth. He generously sent me a piece of his mother’s art, an illustration for a children’s book.
Joel himself appears in an art book called The Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism, by Alan Gussow. The book features Joel’s painting of the Davies farmhouse and pine trees. Nice, huh? The other selections are great, too.
Not sure if Joel is OK with having this on the web. I’ll take it down if asked.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
Great Entry 🙂 I’m really blown away by the illustrations of Lucille Corcos. I love that Joel sent you a picture as well. I have a question to ask you regarding this entry, could you email me?
I am glad people are interested in Lucille Corcos. I wish Wikipedia would post something, but it didn’t like my attempt. And to my regret, I have lost Joel’s e-mail. I have e-mailed you at the e-mail address you included. Also, since you commented between my 1,000th post and the end of this month, you are now in the drawing for a $100 gift certificate from the company I blog for, http://www.lunaandstella.com. I am sure everyone knows someone they would like to give birthstone jewelry to. And my daughter’s company also has cufflinks that men like.
Aha — a blog within the last year! My husband just found a copy of Corcos’ THE CITY BOOK at a thrift store. Delightful illustrations, clearly based on New York but generalized to all big cities, describing the traffic, the city services, entertainment, the cycle of the work day, etc. etc. Lots of those exterior/interior depictions. It’s dated 1972, so this must have been not too long before she died. She wrote the text, too. Now we’d like to find more of her works (discovered we already have the Gilbert & Sullivan) but nobody seem to have a listing. There are bios on a couple of non-Wiki sites. What are some other titles we might look for?
Let me think about this. I did discover some children’s books when I was researching Corcos for a Wikipedia entry I tried to write, but the Wikipedia gatekeepers deleted the entry when I took too long to come up with citations. And her son Joel’s e-mail seems to have changed. But I intend to get back to you. (Meanwhile, Joel, where are you? Write me at suzannesmom@lunaandstella.com.) …
Later. Here are my notes, Pat, from the time I was hoping to create a Wikipedia entry. I think you will find they offer both more than you want and less. But you could check what the Minnesota collection offers. …
From Cipe Pineles Golden and Martha Scotford, Cipe Pineles: A Life in Design (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999)
“Lucille and Edgar left the city in 1941 with their son David. (Son Joel was born a couple years later.) They moved to South Mountain Road in New City. …
“Corcos was a successful painter and illustrator by this time. In the 1930s, fashion, culture and home magazines published her work and her popularity continued into the 1960s. Cipe Pineles’s close friendship with Corcos had begun when Pineles commissioned Corcos’s work for Seventeen and Charm. Her humor in personal interactions and in her art made her an engaging collaborator. Corcos’s paintings were densely packed with many small stories and commentary. The compositions had detailed multiple subjects; perspective and scale were distorted for practical and expressive purposes. This new modern primitivism was considered part of a native tradition in American art and its ‘unacademic’ nature was celebrated. Corcos’s subjects included rural landscapes and urban scenes, ranging from Christmas Eve, Rockfeller Center to The Oyster Party to Everybody Meets the Boat. In addition to doing commissioned illustration, Lucille Corcos built her career as a fine artist and was a steady participant in New York gallery shows from 1936 to 1954. During the same time, she was a part of major exhibitions in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and other institutions in New York.”
See also http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/CLRC-1321.xml
books held in the University of Minnesota’s Children’s Literature Research Collections
Note http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major-General%27s_Song
See http://www.aiga.org/medalist-cipepineles/
More at http://www.fulltable.com/vts/f/fortune/ax/corcos/mna.htm:
(1909-1973) trained at the Art Students’ League and began professionally as a children’s book illustrator.
Her Fire Island house (1950): http://www.wright20.com/auctions/view/FGP5/F57W/300/LA/none/TOP/0
An article in the July 12, 1954, issue of Life magazine, shows two paintings, one of her life in winter in Rockland County, another of activities around her Fire Island house in summer.
Hi Suzanne’s mom. I grew up on South Mountain Road, across the road from the Levy house, and Joel was a boyhood friend. (Have not seen him since.) Lucille was always warm and sweet, and I love her paintings and illustrations. I remember the city book, but no longer have a copy. I think she also did a children’s book called “Joel Gets a Haircut”, whichI also no longer have.
Cheers,
Jamie Anderson
Thanks so much for writing, Jamie. I wish I could get back in touch with Joel. We e-mailed back and forth back when I first posted about Lucille, but the e-mail I had for him stopped working some time later. Someone wanted to ask permission to use one of his mother’s pictures for a music poster, but I couldn’t help. It’s easy for folks to contact me — by commenting as you did or at suzannesmom@lunaandstella.com. Do write if you hear anything new about the family.
Hi Suzanne’s mom. My name is Karina and my husband and I bought the Corcos-Levy house on South Mountain Road. We have been living in it for about 5 years now. We absolutely adore it and love the history of the house and the family that used to live in it. Our neighbors live in the former barn house which is now a full functioning beautiful home. I am so excited to have found this blog because I had always been interested in learning about the history of the house.
Well, I used to visit there as a small child and remember Edgar’s Picasso-like paintings of Lucille on all the walls. They seemed strange to me because not pretty or realistic, but I was little and no judge. I have only vague memories and have lost touch with people I knew on South Mountain Road, like the Burtons and the family at High Tor Vineyards, but I can tell you that the folks who find this blog are usually looking for Lucille’s art. You can also reach me at suzannesmom@lunaandstella.com.
Looking for contact with Joel Levy. Fellow alumni Pratt Institute 1967
I am sorry to say, Gail, Joel died in 2019.