Harry Shokler
1896–1978

Harry Shokler (1896–1978) was a 20th-century American artist known for his oil paintings and screen prints. Using a realist approach that produced what one critic called an "exactness of rendition", he made colorful landscapes, cityscapes, and marine scenes as well as some notable portraits. He helped pioneer silkscreen printmaking in the 1930s and wrote an influential guide explaining and demonstrating the method. He gave few solo or small group exhibitions in commercial galleries and showed his work mainly from his own studio and in non-profit venues.

While critics praised him for skillful depiction of his subjects, they did not credit him with stylistic individuality or skill in reshaping natural subjects to achieve emotional expression. Early in his career critics called his work "simple, direct, and sincere." Of his mature work others used terms like "quaint", "convincing", "capable", "truthfully realistic", and "honest". In 1939, Howard Devree of the New York Times wrote: "Shokler's work is quiet and unostentatious, possesses a real feeling, and combines a rather traditional approach with modern vigor and spirit."