Painted Screens: An East Baltimore Tradition

Painted Screens: An East Baltimore Tradition. Welcome to Eager Park. , In the summer of 1913 at the corner of N. Collington and Ashland Avenues (six blocks east of this park), Baltimore's Painted Screen tradition was born. Grocer William Oktavec, recently arrived from New York via Bohemia (Czechoslovakia), used the woven wire door screens of his corner store as the canvas for a painting of the produce and meats he sold. His neighbors appreciated the ventilation barrier to flying insects, and privacy, preventing passersby on the sidewalk from seeing inside their rowhouses., The colorful scenes of red roofed bungalows and pastoral landscapes copied from calendars and cards prompted residents throughout Baltimore to seek painted screens for their homes too. Dabblers, artists and jacks-of-all-trades tried their hands at it. In 1922, Mr. Oktavec opened The Art Shop at 2409 East Monument Street. He sold custom painted screens, greeting cards, art supplies, religious artifacts and taught art classes. In the heyday in the 1940s and 50s, as many as 200,000 screens were in place around the city., Over the years the popularity of painted screens waxed and waned, brought about by air conditioners, changing demographics, home remodeling and the cost of replacements. As new artists teach themselves and emerge from community workshops, classes and apprenticeships, the art form embraces new subjects , scenes of daily life, popular culture, portraits and abstracts. The screens, have found an eager audience of next-generation artists and admirers to preserve and row this proud East Baltimore icon., To learn more, visit The Painted Screen Society of Baltimore, Inc. www.paintedscreens.org