Louis Pohl (September 14, 1915 – December 22, 1999) was an American painter, illustrator, art teacher, printmaker and cartoonist.

Early life and education

He was born on September 14, 1915, in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. A childhood illness made it impossible to walk without pain and prevented Pohl from entering school until he was 8 years old. To keep him occupied, his parents would give him papers and pencils with which to draw. When 14 years old, Pohl spent his summer caddying at a local golf course. A regular foursome of well-to-do women made an unusual wager—the loser would make their caddy's wish come true. Mrs. Yaeger paid for Pohl's tuition at the

Art Academy of Cincinnati The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the University of Cincinnati, and later in 1887, became the Art Academy ...

for two years. He spent the next 4 years as a teacher's assistant. He did most of the hands-on teaching given to the art students, and he also taught art to underprivileged kids on Saturdays. Eventually, Pohl received his certificate of art upon the completion of a full standing nude copy of a

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

that hung in the

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ...

Career

When

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

broke out, Pohl enlisted in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

, which sent him to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

and assigned him to paint ships in dry dock. He was injured when a destroyer caught fire, and the explosion knocked him off the second level of a scaffold. Pohl was medically discharged and reluctantly returned to Cincinnati, where he was hired by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

to supervise other artists. In that capacity, he painted a portrait of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

. In 1946, Pohl got a call from a former teacher and friend, Bill Stamper, who had talked the Board of Directors of the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

into establishing a professional art school. Stamper invited Pohl to come to Hawaii to start the school, where Pohl taught for 35 years. Pohl also taught art at the Kamehameha Schools for 15 years. In 1960, he wrote and illustrated the book, ''It's Really Nice!'' published by Little, Brown & Company. Pohl died December 22, 1999, in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

. His widow has continued to operate the Louis Pohl Gallery, also in Honolulu. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Hawaii State Art Museum, the

, and the Isaacs Art Center ( Waimea, Hawaii), are among the public collections holding works by Pohl.

Publications

* Pohl, Louis, ''It's really nice!'', Boston, Little, Brown, 1960.

Selected works

Image:'Kids' painting by Louis Pohl.jpg, 'Kids', oil painting by Louis Pohl Image:'Kalapana, Day Seven', oil on canvas painting by --Louis Pohl--.jpg, 'Kalapana, Day Seven', oil on canvas painting by Louis Pohl File:'Pikai', lithograph by Louis Pohl, 1951.JPG, ''Pikai'',

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

by Louis Pohl, 1951

References

* Haar, Francis and Neogy, Prithwish, ''Artists of Hawaii: Nineteen Painters and Sculptors'', University of Hawaii Press, 1974, 96–103. * Hartwell, Patricia L. (editor), ''Retrospective 1967-1987'',

Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1987, p. 54 * Morse, Morse (ed.), ''Honolulu Printmakers'', Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2003, pp. 32 & 45, * Yoshihara, Lisa A., ''Collective Visions, 1967-1997'', awaiiState Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1997, 64.

External links

Louis Pohl Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pohl, Louis 1915 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American illustrators 20th-century American painters 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American male artists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American writers American male painters Artists from Honolulu Printmakers from Hawaii Volcano School painters Works Progress Administration workers Writers from Cincinnati Writers from Honolulu United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy sailors