Anita Heiman, Naturaja, 1949. Soft ground etching and aquatint, screrenprint, image: 17 ½ x 15 in., sheet: 19 5/8 x 16 ¾ in. Courtesy Dolan/Maxwell, Philadelphia, PA.

42. Anita Heiman

Life Dates1922-1988
Place of BirthPhiladelphia, PA, USA
Place of DeathNorritown, PA, USA
Birth NameAnita Heiman

Anita Heiman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to working class parents. By the 1940 census, her parents had divorced and she and her mother—a dress factory worker—were living with her maternal grandfather in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia.1 Heiman attended the Tyler School of Art at Temple University for two years between September 1946 and August 1948, and she participated in an alumni exhibition in 1949.2 Around this time, she also joined the group working with Stanley William Hayter at the Philadelphia Print Club. Her multi-colored soft ground etching Naturaja was included in Atelier 17’s group exhibition with Grace Borgenicht Gallery in 1952, which traveled to multiple venues. By 1956, Heiman had married Dr. Emmanuel Fischhoff, whom she later divorced, and a newspaper report cites her as the driver in a car fatality in August 1956.3 She died in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1988.4

Selected Bibliography

Bonte, C. H. “Innovations Mark Annual Exhibition by Academy Fellowship; Tyler’s Third Annual.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 13, 1949.

———. “Three Prizes Awarded in Print Club Color Show; Other Club Activities.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 6, 1949.

“Water Colors at the ‘Y.’” The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 12, 1950.

Notes

  1. 1940 census, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T627_3755; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 51-2189. ↩
  2. Heiman’s attendance at Temple were verified through National Student Clearinghouse. Her work is mentioned in C. H. Bonte, “Innovations Mark Annual Exhibition by Academy Fellowship; Tyler’s Third Annual,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 13, 1949, 77. ↩
  3. “Runaway Auto Kills Guest,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12, 1956, 37. ↩
  4. See entries for Anita Udell Heiman in Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015). ↩