BOOK
Contact

Revington Arthur
Celebrated American Artist and Colorist

Revington Arthur (1907-1986)

American Artist and Educator and “A True Colorist”

  • Born in Stamford, CT in 1907, In a family of tradition, luxury and refinement
  • Mother: Annie Whitney (from a pioneer Connecticut family) Father: William Henry Arthur (a descendant of President Chester Arthur)
  • Attended private day school and graduated from King School in 1927
  • Studied at Grand Central School of Art (1927-30) in New York followed by the Art Student’s League and Columbia University
  • Artist-teachers who influenced his thinking were popular painters of the day: the Ash Can School – John Sloan, Arshile Gorky, George Luks
  • Named Director Emeritus and Emeritus Instructor in painting at Chautauqua Art Center, NY, in 1985
  • Started painting at the age of eight in 1915, after he found tubes of oil paints on a Christmas tree, and didn’t stop painting for the next 70 years!

“Art is all and all is art…”

R. Arthur
Revington Arthur

Career

  • Founder of Chautauqua Art Association National Exhibition of Art and SilvermineGuild’s New England and National Print Show and Exhibition
  • Served as a president of the Silvermine Guild and lifetime member of its board of trustees
  • Mr. Arthur was associated with other artists groups and museums, including the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield
  • Had more than 100 one-man shows of his paintings in New York, as well as at
    • Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio
    • Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine
    • Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan
    • Other
  • Works were exhibited at:
    • Whitney Museum
    • Carnegie Institute
    • University of Illinois
    • University of Nebraska
    • Corcoran Gallery in New York City
    • Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich
    • 1939 and 1964 world fairs in New York City
    • Pennsylvania Academy of Art
    • Museum of Modern Art in San Paolo, Brazil
    • Other
  • Works are included in many private collections, as well as the collections of
    • Brooklyn Museum
    • Walker Art Center in Minneapolis
    • Wilmington Art Center
    • Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo. N.Y
    • Florida Southern College, the Norfolk Museum of Art and Sciences
    • Roy M. Neuberger Museum
    • Ford Foundation
    • Other
  • Instructed art appreciation classes at New York University. Psychiatrist Karl Menninger, Joan Seiler, Clifford Davis, and others were among his students.
  • In his honor, the “Revington Arthur Award for Excellence in Painting” is now given to artists all around the world.
  • Works appeared in the art exhibitions of American artists in two world fairs
  • In 1948 Mr. Arthur was chosen as one of the young painters to represent the US at the international Exposition held in Brussels, Belguim.
  • In the late 1940s, he established a studio on E 29th Street in New York City.
  • Mr. Arthur’s paintings were reviewed in a number of magazines, such as Time, Esquire, American Artist, etc.

Newspapers and Magazines Reviews

Newspaper Criticism

WORLD-TELEGRAM

“. . . continues to paint some of the most individual pictures around. Still there are differences between his new work and that of a few seasons back. For one thing, the color, without being more subdued, is more purposefully controlled. . . . there is a new emotional depth to his conceptions. “The Departure” is another notable work, reserved and mellow, but most deeply felt.” 

HERALD TRIBUNE

“He can create beauty in a simple and decorative way with high intelligence, and he can evoke simplicity like a child, and with what seems to be pure intuition.”

THE ART NEWS (Magazine)

“Bred in New England, Arthur has curiously turned to the South for inspiration . . . his own succulent style is completely personal and original.”

Other Professions

Teacher

Chautauqua Art Center, 

  • Instructor, 1943-1945
  • Director, 1945-1983
    Stamford, CT, Public Schools Adult Education program
  • Art History and Painting, 1960s-1970s

Musician

Lockwood String Quartet and Norwalk Symphony
Played Violin, 1940s – early 1950s

Writer

Founded own art magazine, wrote for different publications such as American Artists and Ford Times magazines

Evolution

In early years of his career Mr. Arthur was inspired by nature creations. Studied life of American families for seven years across the country which resulted in a new exhibition named “33 American Families”.

Works of the 1950s took a drastically different direction. First abstraction, then an unusual form of realism -very dark canvases with vibrant stabs of color emerging from the backgrounds, which usually included almost hidden figures.

Toward the mid-50s, Mr. Arthur became fascinated with the US and Russian space programs and began incorporating astronauts, jets and satellites into these paintings.

During the 1960s, his work had undergone another change which lasted for the rest of his career. He was again using brilliant color for large masses and including the figure. Mr. Arthur was astonished by the sudden eruption of high-rise buildings and parking garages in the city landscapes, and he painted this new phenomenon.

Mr. Arthur switched from oil paint to acrylic during 1950s.

Condition of the Paintings

Currently the collection of Revington Arthur’s work is undergoing through a digital cataloging process.

See Our Collection

MENU

HOURS

Monday: 11 AM – 6 PM
Tuesday: 11 AM – 6 PM
Wednesday: 11 AM – 6 PM
Thursday: 11 AM – 6 PM
Friday: 11 AM – 6 PM
Saturday: 11 AM – 6 PM
Sunday: Closed

FOLLOW US

Instagram

GET INSIDE ACCESS

FIND US

341 N Canon Drive
90210 Beverly Hills, CA
United States
+1 (310) 990 9898

Copyright – BAB – All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Shipping & Return Policy

Book Now