juice of life

Gallery of Modern Art, Clyde Singer

self- portrait

The Flower Vendor, 1935

After mentioning two of my favorite Ohio artists this week, Charles Burchfield and George Bellows, I realized I had forgotten another of my Ohio favorites, Clyde Singer (1908-1999).  I might just have to turn this subject into a series of posts.

Born in Malvern, a rural village in northeast Ohio, he worked as a sign painter's apprentice after high school, until he saved enough money to enroll in the Columbus Museum of Art School, back in the day before it was known as the Columbus College of Art and Design. In 1933, he enrolled as a scholarship student at the Art Students League, New York, where he studied for seven years with American greats such as Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Richard Edward Miller. Singer's early paintings were scenes of small-town Ohio life, and later shifted focus to more urban settings, capturing contemporary scenes of the time.

Old Shopper, 1945

In 1940, Singer became assistant director at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, and, except for military service during World War II, remained there until his death in 1999.

Stylistically, Singer is classified as a Regionalist. In his sixty-five years as an artist, he created well over 3000 works and is best known for his depictions of the American scene. I love the delightful, engaging way he depicts movement, as well as the emotion and personality of his subjects. Singer's objective was to capture what he called the "juice of life", recording everyday incidents with a gentle, satirical eye.

Wind on the Avenue, 1937
my personal favorite Singer
at my local Columbus Museum of Art
(I like to think Singer included himself on the left.)