AW535: Karl Eugene Fortess - WPA & Woodstock Artist - Expressionist Portrait - Oil on Canvas

COMMENTS: Karl Eugene Fortess - Born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1907 & died in Woodstock, New York in 1993. After emigrating to the US Fortress studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Art Students League in New York; and, the Woodstock School of Painting with Yasuo Kuniyoshi.   He did work for the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in 1937. Fortess later taught at The Art Students League, the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Louisiana State University, Fort Wright College and Boston University School of Fine Art where he created an archive of interviews with more than 250 American artists. He was a member of the Artists Equity Association, Society of American Graphic Artists, American Association of University Professors, and the British Film Institute. He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946, was named an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1960 and elected to full Academician in 1971. While on the faculty at Boston University, Fortess conceived and prepared a grant proposal to the Office of Education, U.S. Dept. Of Health, Education and Welfare, to conduct a study on the benefits to faculty and students in higher education of recorded interviews with artists as a resource, and devoted much of his later career to interviewing artists.