Biografie von Joseph HIRSCH (1910-1981)

Birth place: Phila., PA

Death place: NYC

Addresses: Phila., PA; NYC

Profession: Painter, etcher, lithographer

Studied: PMA Sch., 1927-31; also with Henry Hensche, Provincetown; George Luks in NYC.

Exhibited: WMAA; PAFA, 1933-34, 1942-44, 1949-66 (prize, 1934); NAD, 1934 (prize), 1959 & 1967 (Altman Prize); Prix de Rome Competition, 1935; Corcoran Gal., 1939-53 (6 times); WFNY, 1939 (prize); LOC, 1944 (prize), 1945 (prize); Butler Inst. Am. Art, 1964 (purchase prize); Carnegie Prize, 1968.

Member: NA (first treasurer); Guggenheim Fellowship, 1942-43, 1943-44; Artists Lg. Am.; An Am. Group; Woolley Fellowship, Paris, 1935-36; AEA (founder); Nat. Inst. Arts & Letters; Phila. WCC

Work: WMAA; MoMA; PMA; BMFA; CGA; AGAA; LOC; Univ. Arizona; Encyclopaedia Britannica Collection; IBM. Commissioned WPA murals for Benjamin Franklin High School, Phila.; Amalgamated Clothing Workers Bldg., Phila.; Phila. Municipal Court Bldg.; documentary paintings for U.S. Govt.

Comments: His subjects were often social and/or political, ranging from the labor movement to the student rebellions during the Vietnam War. While in his early work he often used caricature and exaggeration to make his point, he also stressed the humanistic aspect of the ordinary person's life-their relationships, desires, and struggles. During WWII he served as artist-correspondent for the Navy, and made 75 paintings and drawings in the South Pacific, Africa and Italy. Illustrator: Mother Goose, 1946. Teaching: Phila. Artists Union, 1940; Univ. Utah, summer 1959; ASL, 1959-67; Dartmouth College, 1966; Brigham Young Univ., 1971.

Sources: WW73; WW40; 300 Years of American Art, 936; Baigell, Dictionary; Falk, Exh. Record Series.