Ethel Spears (American, 1903-1974) and Kathleen Blackshear (American, 1897-1988). Group of Eight Prints, 1939-1963. Eigh... (Total: 8 )

Description

Ethel Spears (American, 1903-1974) and Kathleen Blackshear (American, 1897-1988)
Group of Eight Prints, 1939-1963
Eight prints in colors on paper
12-3/8 x 9-1/4 inches (31.4 x 23.5 cm) (sheet, largest)
Each signed and titled in pencil along lower edge, with two works dated

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Dallas.

Includes:
On the Beach; Farm; Clock; Snowshoe Rabbit; Head; Lionfish; Mistletoe; Attic Owl.

The present work is accompanied by a portfolio sleeve by Vivian Mayers.

Born in 1905, Chicago native Ethel Spears studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and the Art Students League in New York. She later returned to Chicago to join the faculty at the SAIC, where she taught for twenty-four years. Her work was very well received in New York and Chicago. A well-known muralist, Spears created twenty-three murals for the Works Progress Administration in Chicago. She retired to Navasota, Texas in 1961 where she spent the remainder of her days with her life-long companion, Kathleen Blackshear. Blackshear and Spears were influential teachers at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where they first met in the late 1930s. Kathleen Blackshear was born at Navasota, Texas, 1897. As a child she befriended the children of the African-Americans who picked cotton for her family, and those relationships would have a profound influence on her life and her work. She showed an early aptitude for art, and later attended school at The Art Institute of Chicago. Blackshear began teaching there in 1926, and co-authored two art text books. Throughout her career, she depicted African-American subjects, inspired by her childhood memories, as well as her experiences in Chicago. In the 1920s, Chicago experienced a period known as the Black Chicago Renaissance, which has recently gained more attention after being overshadowed by the more widely known Harlem Renaissance.


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