Vernon Carroll Porter, artist, was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

in 1896. He studied at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

, Grand Central School Academy, the Mechanics Institute, and

Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United St ...

and was known for his surreal landscape oil paintings. As chairman of the Artists Aid Committee, Mr. Porter started the ''Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit'' in 1931, with the objective of helping artists survive the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. The first exhibit, which lasted nine days, was limited to 10 artists who lived in New York. Most of the group lived below 14th Street, with the remainder residing in Brooklyn. The exhibit has since been reorganized into a nonprofit corporation for ''stimulating, promoting and preserving contemporary American art.'' The ''Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit'', in the heart of

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

, has become a major annual tourist attraction while it continues to provide an exhibit area for upcoming new artists to meet with gallery owners, critics, and collectors. From 1938 to 1947, Vernon Porter was Director of the

Riverside Museum The Riverside Museum (replacing the preceding Glasgow Museum of Transport) is a museum in the Partick area of Glasgow, Scotland, housed in a building designed by Zaha Hadid, Zaha Hadid Architects, with its River Clyde frontage at the new Point ...

. Vernon was married to Beata Beach, painter, designer, illustrator, and etcher. She was a daughter of sculptor

Chester Beach Chester A. Beach (May 23, 1881 – August 6, 1956) was an American sculptor who was known for his busts and medallic art. Early life Beach was born in San Francisco, California. He studied initially at the California School of Mechanical Arts ...

. Mr. Porter was living in Putnam Valley, New York when he suffered a stroke and died in Peekskill Community Hospital, Peekskill, New York, August 31, 1982. His wife, Beata Porter, died in August 2007.

References

External links

Time Magazine, June 1, 1932, Art: Colonel's Lady (includes report of the first outdoor exhibit in Washington Square)

The New Yorker, June 1, 1935, p. 12 - Francis S. Wickware, Harold Ross, The Talk of the Town, "Art In The Open.," http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1935/06/01/1935_06_01_012_TNY_CARDS_000159493#ixzz0cEz8xCTm Homepage of the ''Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, Inc.'' https://web.archive.org/web/20100223082617/http://www.washingtonsquareoutdoorartexhibit.org/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Vernon Carroll 1896 births 1982 deaths American artists Directors of museums in the United States