TitleAbove the Valley
Artist
Ethel Magafan
(American, 1916 - 1993)
Daten.d.
MediumEgg tempera on composition board
DimensionsUnframed: 36 5/8 × 52 5/8 in.
Framed: 39 1/2 × 55 1/2 × 2 5/8 in.
SignedSigned lower right: "ETHEL MAGAFAN"; and on reverse: "ABOVE THE VALLEY / ETHEL MAGAFAN / 37 x 53".
SubmissionPossible NA diploma exchange presentation, December 3, 1986
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1986.231
Label TextEthel Magafan was born in Chicago to Greek parents who had recently immigrated to the U.S. The family soon relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Magafan's artistic training occurred at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center under the tutelage of Peppino Mangravite, Boardman Robinson, and Frank Mechau, who hired Magafan and her twin sister, Jenne, to assist on mural projects. In 1937, as part of the W.P.A., Ethel won the commission to paint a mural in the Post Office in Auburn, Nebraska, making her the youngest recipient of such a commission. It would be the first of seven government-sponsored commissions for the artist. In 1945 Magafan and her sister moved to the thriving art community of Woodstock, New York, beginning a life-long association with that region.While Magafan left Colorado at a fairly young age, the mountainous region of her first adopted state would have a great impact on her landscape paintings for the rest of her career and she would return regularly to sketch the area's terrain. Following the premature death of her sister in 1952, Magafan's work took on greater abstract qualities. "Above the Valley" is a typical landscape by Magafan and illustrates her unconventional use of color, particularly blues and purples. The artist continued to paint murals throughout her career and completed her last mural, "Grant in the Wilderness" for the Fredericksburg National Military Park, Virginia in 1979.
1953 (card says 1952)
