Hubert Raczka

Hubert Raczka was a painter who lived and worked in Buffalo. He was born in 1925 and spent four years abroad serving with the Marines. In 1950, Raczka was selected by Life Magazine to be featured as one of its “Nineteen Young American Artists,” selected out of 400 who were nominated by museums and art schools. The March 20^th issue featured artists that the publication felt were “representative of the best young painting being done in the country today.”

His selected work, The Blue Bench, was inspired by the tenement districts of Buffalo. He would often travel through these districts taking photographs, using them as notes for his work. In this particular piece he captures a bright, freshly painted blue bench, which stands out against the older building behind it. Raczka’s paintings were also selected to be exhibited at the Butler Institute of American Art in 1954 and 1955.

This painting, titled World Beaters, reflects the artist’s discouragement with his inability to sell his work. It was this unhappiness that led him to leave Buffalo and take up the career of a commercial artist, a frustration all too common among artists then and today. He eventually left to work for Hallmark and changed his name to Herbert Ross.