Mitchell Siporin (1910–1976) was a Social Realist American painter.[1][2]

Mitchell Siporin
Born(1910-05-05)May 5, 1910
New York City
Died1976 (aged 65–66)
Newton, Massachusetts
Known forPainter
MovementSocial Realism
Back O' The Yards

Biography

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Mitchell Siporin was born on May 5, 1910, in New York City[3] to Hyman, a truck driver, and Jennie Siporin, both immigrants from Poland,[4] and grew up in Chicago.[2][5] Siporin attended School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He did illustrations for Esquire and other magazines. Beginning in the mid-1930s, Siporin worked as a painter for the Illinois Art Project through the Works Progress Administration.[6] Together with Edward Millman, he painted "the largest single mural project awarded for a post office by the Section of Fine Arts" in the Central Post Office in St Louis, Missouri.[5]

In late 1943 he was deployed as a sergeant in the Army Artist Unit, where he served alongside Rudolph von Ripper. He sent back drawings and watercolours from North Africa and Italy.[7]

He married Miriam Tane in Manhattan to November 9, 1945.[8] He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1945 and 1947.[9] In 1949, he won the Prix de Rome in painting.[5]

In 1951, he founded the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University.[10] In 1956, he became the first curator of the Brandeis University Art Collection.[10]

Siporin died in 1976 in Newton, Massachusetts.[11] He was Jewish.[12]

Works

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Siporin's work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago,[13] the Detroit Institute of Arts,[14] the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[15] the Museum of Modern Art,[16] the National Gallery of Art,[17] the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[18] the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[11] the Whitney Museum of American Art,[19] and Albert G. Lane Technical High School in Chicago.[20]

In 1947 his painting End of an Era won the Logan Medal of the Arts at the 51st Annual Exhibition in Chicago.[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Ted Rall, Attitude: the new subversive political cartoonists, Syracuse, New York: Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing, 2002 [1]
  2. ^ a b "Oakton Community College biography". Archived from the original on 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
  3. ^ "Mitchell Siporin". RKD (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  4. ^ 1930 United States Federal Census
  5. ^ a b c Abram Leon Sachar, Brandeis University: A Host at Last, Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 1995, p. 157 [2]
  6. ^ "Mitchell Siporin". Modernism in the New City: Chicago Artists, 1920-1950. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  7. ^ The Army at War: A Graphic Record by American Artists. United States. War Finance Division. 31 December 1943.
  8. ^ New York City, Marriage Indexes, 1907-1995
  9. ^ "Mitchell Siporin". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  10. ^ a b Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Painting in Boston, 1950-2000, Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002, p. 204 [3]
  11. ^ a b "Mitchell Siporin". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  12. ^ Irving Cutler, The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb, Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 146 [4]
  13. ^ "Mitchell Siporin | The Art Institute of Chicago". www.artic.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-11.
  14. ^ "Railroaders". Detroit Institute of Arts Museum. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  15. ^ "Pueblito". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  16. ^ "Mitchell Siporin". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  17. ^ "Mitchell Siporin". Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  18. ^ "Mitchell Siporin". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  19. ^ "Albert G. Lane Technical High School". Chicago Historic Schools. 12 November 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  20. ^ "51st Annual Exhibition" (PDF). Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
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