Marion Greenwood
| Marion Greenwood | |
|---|---|
Marion Greenwood, 1940
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| Born |
April 6, 1909 Brooklyn |
| Died | August 20, 1970 (aged 61) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Art Students League of New York, Académie Colarossi |
| Known for | Murals, Painting, Lithography |
| Movement | Social Realism |
Marion Greenwood (April 6, 1909 – August 20, 1970) was an American social realist artist who became popular starting in the twenties and became renowned in both the United States and Mexico. She is most well known for her powerful murals, but she also practiced easel painting, printmaking, and frescoes.
Marion Greenwood was born in Brooklyn in 1909. She exhibited artistic talent at a very young age and left high school at the age of fifteen to study with a scholarship at the Art Students League. There she studied with John Sloan and George Bridgman. She also studied lithography with[Emil Ganso and mosaic with Alexander Archipenko. At eighteen, she made multiple visits to Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York. There, she painted portraits of intellectuals-in-residence and gained experience and knowledge through conversation. Still in her teens, Greenwood used the proceeds from a portrait of a wealthy financier to begin her travels through Europe. While she was there she studied at the Academie Colarossi in Paris.
She returned to New York in 1930, but continued to travel extensively over the next four decades, mostly throughout the United States, Mexico, and China. The first visit to Taxco, Mexico in 1932 marked a crucial turning point in her career, she worked on fresco murals for the Mexican government. Between 1933 and 1936, Greenwood and her sister painted five separate murals in Taxco and Morelia, Mexico. There she met the artist Pablo O'Higgins, who introduced her to fresco painting. As a result, she began focusing her efforts on fresco-mural painting. She completed her first fresco on the stair well at the Hotel Taxqueño. The success of this piece led to commissions from the University of San Nicolas Hidalgo in Morelia, and the Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market in the historic center of Mexico City. Greenwood was the first woman to receive a mural commission from a foreign government. Shortly after these projects, she returned to the United States to create a mural for the social hall of the Westfield Acres Housing Project in Camden, NJ. In 1937 she was hired to teach fresco painting at Columbia University, and a year later was commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts to paint an oil mural for the post office in Crossville, Tennessee. In 1940 she was commissioned by the Federal Art Project to paint frescoes for the Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn. This project, titled Blueprint for Living, was meant for low-income citizens in government housing and expressed optimism for a more harmonious future.
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