Marion Greenwood facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marion Greenwood
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Marion Greenwood, 1940
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| Born | April 6, 1909 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
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| Died | August 20, 1970 (aged 61) Kingston, New York, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Education | Art Students League of New York, Académie Colarossi |
| Known for | murals, painting, printmaking |
| Movement | Social Realism |
| Spouse(s) | Charles Fenn (1939–?, divorce), Robert Plate (?–1970, death) |
| Parents |
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| Relatives | Grace Greenwood Ames (sister) |
Marion Greenwood (born April 6, 1909 – died August 20, 1970) was an American artist. She became famous in the 1920s for her art, especially in the United States and Mexico. Marion Greenwood is best known for her large wall paintings called murals. She also created art using other methods like easel painting, printmaking, and frescoes (painting on wet plaster).
Greenwood traveled to many places, including Mexico, Hong Kong, Burma, and India. She loved to show people from different cultures and backgrounds in her art. She often focused on people who were facing difficulties in developing countries. Sometimes, her art has been seen as using stereotypes, which has led to discussions in modern times.
Contents
Early Life and Art Education
Marion Greenwood was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1909. Her father, Walter Greenwood, was a painter, and her older sister, Grace Greenwood Ames, was also an artist. It seems art ran in their family!
Marion showed a lot of artistic talent from a very young age. When she was just fifteen, she left high school. She received a scholarship to study at the Art Students League of New York. There, she learned from famous painters like John Sloan and George Bridgman. She also studied lithography (a type of printmaking) with Emil Ganso and mosaic art with Alexander Archipenko.
When she was eighteen, Marion visited Yaddo several times. Yaddo is a place in Saratoga Springs, New York, where artists and writers can stay and work. While there, she painted portraits of important thinkers and learned a lot from talking with them. In the mid-1920s, Greenwood also studied with Winold Reiss. He was a German-born artist who helped shape the Harlem Renaissance art movement. In 1929, both Marion and her sister Grace took part in the well-known Maverick Festival. This art event happened at the Maverick Art Colony in Woodstock, New York.
Still a teenager, Greenwood used money from painting a portrait of a rich financier to travel through Europe. While in Paris, France, she studied art at the Academie Colarossi.
Marion Greenwood's Art Career
Marion Greenwood came back to New York in 1930. However, she continued to travel a lot over the next forty years. She explored many parts of the United States, Mexico, and China. In her artwork, she used various materials and techniques. These included oil paint, fresco, lithography, etching, charcoal, and ink.
Her first trip to the Southwest United States started a new theme in her art. She began to focus on showing different ethnic groups and cultures around the world. As she visited new places, Greenwood would spend time learning about the local people. She would then use them as subjects for her drawings and paintings. Later, when she created large murals, she often used these earlier studies to add figures to her bigger artworks.
Murals in Mexico
A very important moment in Marion Greenwood's career happened in 1932. She visited Taxco, Mexico, for the first time. There, she started working on fresco murals for the Mexican government. Between 1933 and 1936, Greenwood and her sister painted five different murals. These were located in Taxco and Morelia, Mexico. Her older sister Grace helped her as a painting assistant during their time in Mexico.
In Mexico, Marion met the artist Pablo O'Higgins. He taught her how to paint frescoes. Fresco painting is a technique where you paint on wet plaster, and the paint becomes part of the wall. After learning this, she focused more on fresco murals. Greenwood's first fresco mural was called Mercado en Taxco (1933). It is located in the stairwell of the Hotel Taxqueño in Guerrero.
This successful artwork led to more projects. She received commissions from the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Morelia. She also painted at the Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market in the historic center of Mexico City. To prepare for her mural at the Universidad Michoacana, Greenwood spent a whole year studying the Purépecha Indians' culture. She wanted to truly understand them before finishing her project.
Her art during her time as a Mexican muralist often had themes of change and revolution. Her style was influenced by famous artists like José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera. This could be seen in how she drew figures and created dynamic scenes.
Commissions and Murals in the U.S.
Marion Greenwood was the first woman to receive a mural commission from a foreign government. After her projects in Mexico, she returned to the United States. She created a mural for the social hall of the Westfield Acres Housing Project in Camden, New Jersey. In 1937, she was hired to teach fresco painting at Columbia University. A year later, she was asked by the Section of Fine Arts to paint an oil mural. This mural, called The Partnership of Man and Nature, was for the post office in Crossville, Tennessee.
Greenwood's murals were often large, dramatic scenes. They showed groups of people involved in cultural activities. Or, if it was a social project, they showed workers in their environment. Her murals often shared messages of hope, fairness, and variety. For example, Rehearsal for African Ballet shows African-Americans playing music, singing, and dancing. In Blueprint for the Living, workers are building with bricks while a family watches the construction.
In 1939, she married Charles Fenn, who was from Britain.
In 1940, the Federal Art Project asked her to paint frescoes for the Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn. This project, named Blueprint for Living, was for people living in low-income government housing. It showed a hopeful vision for a more peaceful future. Around 1940, Greenwood started to focus on easel painting and printmaking. She often created strong, realistic scenes of working-class people or thoughtful portraits. Her subjects from the 1940s were mainly portraits of people, often those from lower classes working hard or living in difficult conditions, both in America and other countries. Critics praised Greenwood for her "deep sympathy with the poor and the oppressed." They also noted her "natural democratic feeling" and how she ignored "difficulties and class barriers." She was seen as someone who supported struggling people, just as she supported social movements with her social realist murals.
Art During World War II
When World War II (1939–1945) began, Greenwood was one of only two women chosen to be an artist war-correspondent. This meant she painted what she saw during the war for the United States Army Art Program. During this time, she painted wounded soldiers as they recovered. Sometimes, this meant being present during surgeries to sketch. She would also follow patients through their therapy. The paintings, drawings, and etchings from this series are kept in the official records of the United States Department of War. A pharmaceutical company called Abbott Laboratories helped pay for parts of this program.
Travels to Hong Kong
In the spring of 1946, Marion Greenwood traveled with her husband, Charles Fenn, to Hong Kong. They stopped in London, Burma, and India on their way. Fenn had lived in Hong Kong before World War II. He was starting a job with the United States Marine Corps for the Office of Strategic Services. At this time, British colonists had a strong influence in Hong Kong. Greenwood's travels included a four-day trip to Guangzhou, China, and a weekend trip to Macau. She returned to New York City by herself in June 1947. In December 1947, she had her first solo art show in New York City. It featured pieces from her time in Hong Kong at the Associated American Artists (AAA) gallery. Another art exhibition was held in March 1948.
Greenwood and Fenn later divorced.
The Knoxville Mural
In 1954, Greenwood received a big project. She was asked to paint a large oil-on-linen mural, 6 by 29 feet, called "The History of Tennessee." It was nicknamed "The Singing Mural." This mural was for the University Center student building at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. It took her a year to finish the painting. During this time, Greenwood also taught art classes at the university as an artist-in-residency.
The mural was designed to show the folk traditions and music of Tennessee. It had four main sections. When the painting was finished and shown to the public in June 1955, it caused controversy. It was vandalized, hidden, and debated. This was mainly because some images were seen as racial stereotypes. One part of the mural showed an adult Black man farming cotton, smiling. It was unclear if he was meant to be a slave, a sharecropper, or a farmer.
In 1972, the mural was covered up with wood panels. In 2006, students asked for the mural to be uncovered. The "Greenwood Mural Project" was then started on campus to discuss censorship and race. In 2013, the University Center building that held the mural was removed. The mural was restored and put into storage. In 2014, the mural was put on public display at the Knoxville Museum of Art. It is part of their permanent exhibit "Higher Ground," which focuses on art in East Tennessee.
Later Life and Legacy
Marion Greenwood's art was shown in many solo exhibitions at the American Contemporary Artists Gallery in New York City. Her work was also displayed at important places like the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the New York World's Fair.
Her last mural was created in 1965 at Syracuse University. This mural was dedicated to women around the world. It combined drawings and paintings from her studies and travels. Towards the end of her life, she lived in Woodstock, New York, with her second husband, Robert Plate.
Marion Greenwood passed away on August 20, 1970, in Kingston, New York. She had been ill for a long time and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
Awards and Recognition
Marion Greenwood received several awards for her artistic achievements:
- 1944 – Second Prize for Painting In The United States, at the Carnegie Museum of Art, for her painting, Mississippi Girl (1943).
- 1946 – Lithography Prize from John Herron Art Institute.
- 1951 – First Walter Lippincott Prize at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
- 1952 – First Altman Prize for figure drawing from the 127th Annual National Academy of Design.
- 1956 – Second Purchase Prize at the Butler Institute of American Art, for her painting, Elegy.
- 1959 – The Grumbacher Prize from the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA).
- 1959 – She was elected to the National Academy of Design organization.
Images for kids
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Greenwood painting fresco murals at Abelardo Rodriguez Market, Mexico City, 1936
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Abelardo Rodriguez Market, Mexico City
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Mural at Red Hook housing project
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Red Hook children on scaffolding with the artist
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Marion Greenwood (1940) painting a WPA Federal Art Project.
See also
- List of artists from Brooklyn
