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George Melville Smith
Shopping Day

$7,500

£5,686.43

€6,638.64

CA$10,724.27

A$10,889.61

CHF 6,216.37

MX$131,582.43

NOK 73,021.46

SEK 72,822.23

DKK 49,629.14

About the Item

> > Painter George Melville Smith (1879-1979) Painter, illustrator born in Chicago. Smith began formal art studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at the age of seventeen, after first studying as an architect's apprentice. In 1925-26 he studied in Paris under Andre Lhote, then worked as a painter in France, Spain, England and Italy. He exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago four times during the 1930s, and was included in the Whitney Museum's 1933 exhibit which also featured Grant Wood's 'American Gothic'; his work 'Portrait of Daniel Webster Alexander' was acquired by the Whitney for their permanent collection during the same year. In 1936, he became the supervisor of 229 artists working for the applied arts project for the Works Progress Administration, a federal program during the Great Depression that aimed to make art accessible to everyone and provide work for unemployed artists. > He was one of a handful of artists who were awarded multiple mural contracts through the Treasury Section, and was selected based upon designs he submitted to produce murals for post offices in Crown Point, IN, (1938), Elmhurst, IL, (1938), and Park Ridge, (1940). He was paid approximately $2,000 for each mural. These projects were distinct from the Federal Arts Project that was administered under the WPA in that the artists chosen did not necessarily have to be in financial need. Instead, the Treasury Section held regional and national mural competitions in order to commission 'high art' by the best artists available.The same year, Smith was commissioned to paint a mural in the lobby of the recently-constructed Elmhurst Post Office. Entitled "There Was Vision", the mural was completed in 1937 and remains installed in the Elmhurst Post Office on the east wall of the lobby. Smith was a winner of the Chicago and Vicinity Show held at the Art Institute in 1932 and also exhibited there in 1933 and 1937, as well as at the Federal Art Project exhibit that the Institute hosted in 1938. In 1933, he exhibited eight murals illustrating the history of refrigeration at the General Exhibit Building at the Century of Progress. > He became the supervisor of the applied arts project for the WPA in 1936 and created a mural for Chicago’s Schubert Elementary School in 1938. In December 1949 and January 1950, he provided the frontispiece illustrations for Zane Grey's Western Magazine. He was a member of the Arts Club, the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists, and in 1932 was awarded the Art Institute of Chicago's Fine Arts Building Purchase Prize, as well as a Silver Medal from the Chicago Society of Artists. He participated in the Forty-Eight States Competition in 1939, and served as the fifth president of the Chicago Society of Artists. Working in a colorful regionalist style displaying modern design elements, Smith painted both historic and contemporaneous figurative works depicting various aspects of the American Scene, as well as landscape, portraits, and still lifes. Works held: The Whitney Museum of American Art, Permanent Collection [1933]. He died in Fayette, Kentucky, on May 12, 1979.

Creator:
George Melville Smith (1879 - 1979)
Dimensions:
Height: 22 in (55.88 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)Depth: 4 in (10.16 cm)
Medium:
Canvas,Oil
Movement & Style:
American Modern
Period:
1930-1939
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Los Angeles, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU395564491

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