Hilda Davidson Kaster (1912-2008) American, Oil on Masonite. Portrait of a young boy in a blighted landscape. Signed lower right. Inscribed and titled on back: "Haunting Dream." 

Overall: 18 3/4 X 16 1/2 in. 

Sight: 18 X 15 3/4 in. 

Depth: 2 in. 

Hilda Miriam Davidson Kaster (nee Hilda Davidson) was born in March 1912 in Oakland, California to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. By the age of twelve she was involved in theater productions around Marin County and was taking art classes at the Jewish Community Center. In the early 1930s she moved to New York to study at the Traphagen School of Design. She was a student of Moses Soyer and William Gropper, who were founders of the Ashcan School, and also became involved with politics while studying under socialist-leaning artists Harry Glassgold and Saul Baizerman at the American Artists School. In the mid 1930s she worked as a commercial artist and designer for I. Miller Shoes, but had to return to California to take care of her ailing mother. Determined to keep making art she began to study with Chinese-American artist Dong Kingman in San Francisco, and joined a union organization called the Walrus Club, which focused on arts and politics. It was there that she met and married Charles E. Kaster in 1940, and she and her mother joined the American Communist Party that same year. They had to relocate to Pensacola, Florida while Charles completed military service, and returned to San Francisco in 1944 where they both worked at the Marin Shipyards. Charles eventually joined the Communist Party in 1947, which resulted in both of them being blacklisted and having difficulty finding work. In 1949 after Hilda’s mother passed away they moved with their two children to Sebastopol, California, where they were part of a leftist-friendly community of chicken ranchers. Her art continued to evolve, reflecting her political and social views, and she organized a group of artists in the community that met on a weekly basis. She became a member of the Santa Rosa Art Guild and the Artists Workshop, and has had exhibitions at the Museum of California Design. Shifting acceptance in the art world gave her some recognition in the final years of her life, and she passed away at the ranch in January 2008.

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