Faye Swengel Badura

Faye Swengel Badura was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1904. In 1923 she studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts with Arthur B. Carles, Daniel Garber, and George Oberteuffer. Swengel won the Cresson Fellowship in 1925, allowing her to travel and study in Europe. She met fellow Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts student, Ben Badura, and married him in 1928. They moved to Bucks County in 1930, settling permanently in New Hope in 1937. Here she became involved in the local art scene, carrying out many portrait commissions, and painting restoration work and locally inspired landscapes. Fellow New Hope Modernist, Ralston Crawford, in the 1930s, referred to Swengel as "one of the best woman artists in America at the time." She actively exhibited her work through the 1930s and 1940s. Faye Swengel Badura died in 1991.

Education and Training
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1923-1927
Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania

Teachers
Studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Daniel Garber, George Oberteuffer, and Arthur B. Carles

Connection to Bucks County
Faye Swengel lived in New Hope from 1937 until her death in 1991. Before this she lived in Centerbridge and Lumberville with her husband, Ben Badura.

Colleagues
Faye Swengel Badura was married to Ben Badura since 1928. A member of the New Hope school, she did restoration work and portraits of people in the community. The Baduras lived across the street from John Folinsbee and knew most of the artists in the area. She was especially well acquainted with Ralston Crawford and the New Hope modernists. Architect and painter Don Hedges designed the Baduras' home in New Hope.

Major Awards
Cresson Traveling Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1925
Fellowship Annual Award, 1927
Gold Medal Award Fellowship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1927
Mary Smith Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1942
Harrison S. Morris Prize
May Audubon Prize

Major Group Exhibitions
The Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, 1935, 1937, 1947
National Academy of Design, New York, New York, 1934, 1936
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1946, and 1958
Playhouse Galleries, New Hope, Pennsylvania , 1953
The Fiftieth Anniversary Retrospective Art Exhibition, Phillips Mill Community Association, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1979
The Human Figure, Bucks County Council on the Arts, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1981
Retrospective Exhibition of Bernard and Faye Swengel Badura, Coryell Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1985
Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey
Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Objects of Desire: Treasures from Private Collections, James A. Michener Art Museum, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 2005 - 2006

Major Solo Exhibitions
Kemerer Museum, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1989

Major Collections
James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania