# Alice Decker

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**Alice Decker** (September 1, 1901 – 1979) was an American sculptor born in [St. Louis, Missouri](/source/St._Louis,_Missouri).

## Early years

Decker studied in France with [Bourdelle](/source/Antoine_Bourdelle), and [Despiau](/source/Despiau) and in New York with direct carver [Robert Laurent](/source/Robert_Laurent).[1]

## Later career

During the course of 1934 she married [Duncan Ferguson](/source/Duncan_Ferguson_(political_activist)). Shortly thereafter she began a three-year affair with critic [Lewis Mumford](/source/Lewis_Mumford), beginning in 1934, but after a mutual parting they both agreed to destroy their correspondence from during this period, fearing that their respective spouses might learn of their relationship. She later joined a “League Against War, Fascism and Lewis Mumford” with his wife Sophia and another former lover of his, [Catherine Bauer](/source/Catherine_Bauer_Wurster).[2] In 1936, after leaving her husband she moved into a house in Greenwich Village with a long, storied history.[3]

During the [Great Depression](/source/Great_Depression) US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated the [New Deal](/source/New_Deal). One of its programs was the [Federal Art Projects](/source/Federal_Art_Projects) under which the federal government hired artists, mostly painters and sculptors to create art for a variety of public places, often post offices. De Coux carved two reliefs, ""The Oldest Church in the Valley” and *Ploughing* for the post office in [Palmyra, Pennsylvania](/source/Palmyra,_Pennsylvania).[4]

Decker was a founding member of the [Sculptors Guild](/source/Sculptors_Guild) and exhibited at its 1939[5] 1940[6] and 1941[7] exhibitions.

Decker was one of the sculptors who exhibited at the [3rd Sculpture International](/source/3rd_Sculpture_International) in Philadelphia in 1949.

## Personal life

Decker was married twice, from 1934 to 1936 to [Duncan Ferguson](/source/Duncan_Ferguson_(political_activist)) and to financier Davidson Summers from 1938 until her death in 1979 with whom she had at least one child, Elizabeth Spaulding of [Economy, Nova Scotia](/source/Economy,_Nova_Scotia).[8]

## Work

Decker's work can be found:[9]

- Polar Bear, [University of Notre Dame](/source/University_of_Notre_Dame), Snite Museum of Art, [South Bend, Indiana](/source/South_Bend,_Indiana)
- Whom Shall I Fear?, [Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts](/source/Pennsylvania_Academy_of_the_Fine_Arts), [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania](/source/Philadelphia,_Pennsylvania)
- Post Office Panels, US Post Office, [Palmyra, Pennsylvania](/source/Palmyra,_Pennsylvania)
- Penguin and Polar Bear, [Wichita Art Museum](/source/Wichita_Art_Museum), [Wichita, Kansas](/source/Wichita,_Kansas)
- Sea Breeze, exhibited Sculptors’ Guild Travelling Exhibition 1940-1941[10]
- Reaping, 1941 Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition[11]
- Flight, 1939 SculptorsGuild Outdoor Exhibition[12]
- [lewis Mumford](/source/Lewis_Mumford)’s private collection[13]

## References

1. McGlauflin, Alice Coe, ed., ‘’Who's Who in American Art 1938-1939” vol.2, The American Federation of Arts, Washington D.C., 1937 p.141

1. Miller, Donald L. (2002). [*Lewis Mumford, a Life*](https://books.google.com/books?id=AtBfyg_Vj7gC&q=sculptor+alice+decker&pg=PA344). Grove Press. ISBN 9780802139344.

1. ["Daytonian in Manhattan: A House Where Art was Created -- No. 61 Perry Street"](http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-house-where-art-was-created-no-61.html). 23 May 2013.

1. Park, Marlene and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1984 p. 226

1. Sculptors Guild Second Outdoor Exhibition: 1939, The Sculptors’ Guild, New York, 1939 p. 19

1. Sculptors’ Guild Travelling Exhibition: 1940-194, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1940 pp. 10–11

1. Sculptors Guild Third Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition: 1941, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1941 p. 8

1. ["Davidson Sommers Dies"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/12/19/davidson-sommers-dies/80cd0c64-54e0-4922-80fc-55da44a3f0fc/). *[The Washington Post](/source/The_Washington_Post)*. 2000-12-19. [ISSN 0190-8286](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0190-8286). [OCLC 1330888409](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1330888409)

1. ["SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System"](http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=14X303993TF47.17491&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!204573~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Decker%2C+Alice%2C+1901-+%2C+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR)

1. Sculptors’ Guild Travelling Exhibition: 1940-1941, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1940

1. Sculptors Guild Third Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition: 1941, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1941 p. 8

1. Sculptors Guild Second Outdoor Exhibition: 1939, The Sculptors’ Guild, New York, 1939 p. 19

1. Sculptors’ Guild Travelling Exhibition: 1940-1941, The Sculptors’Guild, New York, 1940

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alice Decker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Decker) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Decker?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.