Maxine Albro

Maxine Albro (January 20, 1903 Ayrshire, Iowa – July 19, 1966 Los Angeles) was an American painter, muralist and lithographer. She was one of the few female artists commissioned under the New Deal's Federal Art Project, a program launched during the Great Depression that also employed the likes of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, among other painters who would go on to become famous.^[1]

Albro's works can be found in the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian American Art Museum, San Francisco's Coit Tower, Allied Arts Guild, and in various galleries throughout the United States.^[2] Albro studied under Diego Rivera in Mexico, and she is most recognized for her frescos and her characteristic treatment of Mexican and Spanish subject matter.

The strong influence of Mexican art is visible throughout her paintings, murals and lithographs. In an interview two years before her death, Albro said, "I was so influenced by what I had seen in Mexico. ... There is nothing I loved more than painting the Virgin of Guadalupe,"^[3] a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary, which originated in Mexico.

The famed photographer Imogen Cunningham took a hauntingly intimate photograph of Albro in 1931, which can be seen on the Official Site for the Imogen Cunningham Trust.

Life

Albro grew up in Los Angeles. In 1920, she moved to San Francisco where she studied at the California School of Fine Arts between 1923 to 1925. A year later, she enrolled in the Art Students League of New York. In 1927, she studied at Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.

Albro was an assistant to Diego Rivera and studied with Pablo O'Higgins. She was part of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, a program initiated under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. She created murals at Coit Tower in 1933 to 1934, and a mosaic at San Francisco State University.

In 1938, she married Parker Hall. They moved to Carmel, California, and later traveled to Mexico. Albro was a member of the Carmel Art Association, California Society of Mural Artists, American Artists' Congress, and the California Art Club.^[4]

Her work is in the National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.^[5]

Style

Albro's artistic style is described as "clean, bright and clear with the strong rounded forms of this era, often depicting the women of Mexico, in particular those of the Tehuantepec region in Oaxaca."^[6] Her mural at San Francisco's Coit Tower, "California Agriculture", is still powerful today and is clearly one of the strongest murals produced by an esteemed group of Works Progress Administration artists.

References

1. ^ "List of Works Progress Administration artists". List of Works Progress Administration artists. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Works_Progress_Administration_artists. 
2. ^ "Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery". Maxine Albro (1903-1966). http://www.sullivangoss.com/maxine_Albro/. 
3. ^ "Archives of American Art". Oral history interview with Maxine Albro and Parker Hall, 1964 July 27. http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-maxine-albro-and-parker-hall-12350. 
4. ^ http://www.sullivangoss.com/maxine_Albro/
5. ^ http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=35968
6. ^ "Hillsborough Antique Show and Sales". Maxine Albro, California Artist. http://hillsboroughantiqueshow.com/maxine-albro.html. 

External links

• "Oral history interview with Maxine Albro and Parker Hall, 1964 July 27", Archives of American Art
• http://www.archive.org/details/californiaartres202hail
• http://tobeycmossgallery.com/albroindex.html

Persondata
Name	Albro, Maxine
Alternative names
Short description	Muralist, printmaker
Date of birth	January 20, 1903
Place of birth	Ayrshire, Iowa
Date of death	July 19, 1966
Place of death	Los Angeles