Elizabeth Olds
Elizabeth Olds | |
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Social Realism | |
Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship |
Elizabeth Olds (December 10, 1896 – March 4, 1991)
Early life and education
Olds was born in
Career
Early works
The early style of Olds reflects Luks's influence on her art. The pair experimented with the style and themes of the
Great Depression
Olds was fairly sheltered from the Great Depression when she returned to the U.S. in 1929. In 1932, Olds viewed José Clemente Orozco’s nearly finished murals at Dartmouth College, and was inspired by his expressive use of form and political themes.[6] The same year, she moved to Omaha, Nebraska to paint portraits of the family of Samuel Rees, a local industrialist.[6] Olds completed the project, but she became frustrated with the monotony of painting portraits. At the same time Olds was studying the basics of lithography at Rees's printing business.[6]
From 1933-1934, Olds was invited to join the
From 1935 until the early 1940s, Olds was a nonrelief employee for the
Olds and Gottlieb experimented with silkscreen printing as a fine arts medium.[12] They accomplished this with a few other artists in the silkscreen unit of the Graphic Arts Division of the WPA-FAP in New York.[12] Carl Zigrosser, who was curator of prints and drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1940 through 1963, wrote from the vantage point of 1941 that: "The first serigraph actually made on the newly organized (WPA) New York Silk Screen Project was The Concert by Olds. . . .She is an accomplished graphic artist and has made a considerable number of serigraphs outside the Project, in addition to her long experience in lithography."[13]
From 1939 until 1941, Olds and Gottlieb opened and ran the independent Silk Screen School for students interested in learning the newest printmaking technologies.
Olds submitted and reproduced 10 prints in
Later works
After World War II, Olds redirected her skills and began experimenting with watercolor, collage, and woodblock prints.[18] Her silk screen, "Three Alarm Fire" (1945), prompted Roberta Fansler to suggest that Olds should illustrate children's books.[19] From 1945-1963, Olds wrote and illustrated six children's books. In three of her books, Olds wrote about firefighters, trains, and oil, educating her readers about industrialism.[19]
In the early 1950s, Olds was hired as an illustrator-reporter for
Children's books
Olds wrote and illustrated six children's
- The Big Fire (LCCN 45-9049
- Riding the Rails (HM, 1948), LCCN 48-8418
- Feather Mountain (HM, 1951), LCCN 51-11769
- Deep Treasure: the story of oil (HM, 1958), LCCN 57-9016
- Plop plop Ploppie (LCCN 62-9647
- Little Una (Scribner's, 1963), LCCN 63-9460
Personal life and retirement
Olds never married. She had close friendships with Harry Gottlieb, Berenice Abbott, and Elizabeth McCausland.[18] In 1972, Olds retired to Sarasota, Florida where she worked until her death in 1991.[18]
Awards and exhibitions
- 1934: "The Dying Gangster," lithograph, wins silver at the Kansas City Art Institute.[21]
- 1935: "Sheep Skinners" exhibits in the “Fifty Best Prints of the Year” at the Weyhe Gallery in New York.[21]
- 1936: "Bootleg Coal, Pennsylvania" is reproduced in the book version of the Artists’ Congress exhibition “America Today: One Hundred Prints.”[22]
- 1937: One-person exhibit of her steel mill drawings at the A.C.A. Gallery.[22]
- 1938: "Miner Joe," lithograph, wins first place in the Philadelphia Print Club competition.[11]
- 1939: "The Middle Class," lithograph, wins first place in the Philadelphia Art Alliance competition.[16]
- 1941, 1950, 1955, & 1960 solo shows with the A.C.A. Gallery.[22]
- 1969: Solo exhibition at the Staten Island Museum.
References
- ^ "Elizabeth Olds". Retrieved July 22, 2020.
- ^ a b Arthur, Susan E. and Kenneth Wade Prescott. Elizabeth Olds, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Prints. Austin: RGK Foundation, 1986. p:7
- ^ "Elizabeth Olds". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2015-05-10. "As published in the Foundation's Report for 1926–27."
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Arthur, Susan E. and Kenneth Wade Prescott. Elizabeth Olds, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Prints. Austin: RGK Foundation, 1986. p:9
- ^ a b c "Emmett Hudspeth: A Preliminary Inventory of His Collection of Elizabeth Olds at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center". University of Texas (hrc.utexas.edu). Retrieved 2014-09-18.
- ^ a b c d e f g “Elizabeth Olds: Gender Difference and Indifference.” Langa, Helen. Women’s Art Journal 22, no. 2 (2001): 5-11. p:5
- ^ a b c “Elizabeth Olds: Gender Difference and Indifference.” Langa, Helen. Women’s Art Journal 22, no. 2 (2001): 5-11. p:6
- ^ a b Arthur, Susan E. and Kenneth Wade Prescott. Elizabeth Olds, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Prints. Austin: RGK Foundation, 1986. p:14
- ^ "Elizabeth Olds 1896–1991". Keith Sheridan Fine Prints (keithsheridan.com). Retrieved 2014-09-18.
- ^ "Elizabeth Olds". Dr. Leslie & The Composing Room: 1934–1942, an important time in the development of American graphic design. Dr. Leslie Project (drleslie.com). Retrieved 2014-09-18. "An MFA Thesis Project Written & Designed by Erin K. Malone: Rochester Institute of Technology – 1994."
- ^ a b c Arthur, Susan E. and Kenneth Wade Prescott. Elizabeth Olds, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Prints. Austin: RGK Foundation, 1986. p:15
- ^ a b Watrous, James. American Printmaking: A Century of American Printmaking, 1880-1980. Madison: UP Art College of Wisconsin, 1984. p:107
- ^ Zigrosser, Carl (December 1941). Bender, John (ed.). "The Serigraph, A New Medium". The Print Collector's Quarterly. 28 (4): 459.
- ^ Langa, Helen. Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s New York. Oakland: UC Press, 2004. p:32
- ^ "Press release for "American Color Prints Under $10"" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- ^ a b Arthur, Susan E. and Kenneth Wade Prescott. Elizabeth Olds, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Prints. Austin: RGK Foundation, 1986. p:16
- ^ “Elizabeth Olds: Gender Difference and Indifference.” Langa, Helen. Women’s Art Journal 22, no. 2 (2001): 5-11. p:7
- ^ a b c “Elizabeth Olds: Gender Difference and Indifference.” Langa, Helen. Women’s Art Journal 22, no. 2 (2001): 5-11. p:9
- ^ a b c d Arthur, Susan E. and Kenneth Wade Prescott. Elizabeth Olds, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Prints. Austin: RGK Foundation, 1986. p:22
- ^ "Elizabeth Olds (1896–1991)". Ask/Art (askart.com). Retrieved 2014-09-18. With short biography: unrestricted access to the first 500 of 1829 characters; accessible freely to anyone every Friday.
- ^ a b Arthur, Susan E. and Kenneth Wade Prescott. Elizabeth Olds, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Prints. Austin: RGK Foundation, 1986. p:51
- ^ a b c “Elizabeth Olds: Gender Difference and Indifference.” Langa, Helen. Women’s Art Journal 22, no. 2 (2001): 5-11. p:8
External links
- Comrades In Art / Revolutionary Art In America 1926 - 1938 / A Narrated Online Exhibition created by Francis Booth — top page only at Internet Archive, with exhibition Catalog (PDF.zip, 90 MB)
- Elizabeth Olds: Rights and Restrictions Information at the Library of Congress[clarification needed]
- Elizabeth Olds at Library of Congress, with 20 library catalog records (some under 'Olds, Elizabeth, 1897–')
- Harrison, Helen A. 7 American Women, the Depression Decade: Rosalind Bengelsdorf, Lucienne Bloch, Minna Citron, Marlon Greenwood, Doris Lee, Elizabeth Olds, Concetta Scaravaglione. Poughkeepsie: Vassar College Art Gallery, 1976.
- "Miner Joe" (1938 lithograph) at Illinois State Museum Collections Online – with short biography
- WPA/FAP Graphics. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1976.