My mother gave me this signed print by Minnesota artist Paul S. Kramer (1919-2012). It is of the Minnesota Boat Club, a St. Paul rowing club, which dates back to 1870 and claims to be Minnesota’s oldest athletic institution.  Their boathouse on Raspberry Island was built in 1910 and can be rented for weddings or other events.

Kramer’s original 1998 painting is oil on canvas, measures 28″ x 37″ and is part of the Dan Shogren and Susan Meyer collection.  Shogren and Meyer’s collection focuses on twentieth century American art and has been featured at The Minneapolis Institute of Art.  A beautiful survey of Kramer’s art titled Other Realities was published by Julie L’Enfant, who taught at the St. Paul College of Visual Arts before it closed in 2013. 

Kramer grew up on a farm, first in North Dakota and then South St. Paul.  After serving in Europe during WWII, he studied art in France then returned to St. Paul, where he took classes at the St. Paul School of Art with Clement Haupers.  Next, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and spent more time in Europe, before returning to teach and become Director of Exhibitions at the St. Paul Gallery and School of Art, which is now the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

The museum struggled financially in the 1990s and early 2000s but seems to be thriving at its current home in the 1889-1890 Pioneer and Endicott buildings designed by Cass Gilbert and James Knox Taylor.  The museum is also free and hopefully can be part of a revitalized downtown St. Paul cultural scene!