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Constance Forsyth

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Constance Forsyth
Born(1903-08-18)August 18, 1903
Indianapolis, Indiana
DiedJanuary 22, 1987(1987-01-22) (aged 83)
Occupation(s)Artist, teacher

Constance Forsyth (1903–1987) was an American artist, teacher, and printmaker. Her work is in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Blanton Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Early life and education

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Forsyth was born on August 18, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana.[1][2] She was the middle child born to her parents, the artist William Forsyth and Alice (Atkinson) Forsyth.[3]: 220 

Forsyth attended Shortridge High School[4] and then Butler University in Indianapolis, where she earned a B.A. in chemistry in 1925,[3]: 222  Forsyth began formal painting instruction at the John Herron Art Institute,[5] where she studied with Helene Hibben.[6] She subsequently studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she was introduced to grease crayons as a drawing material,[3]: 223  and the Broadmoor Art Academy[5] where she studied under Boardman Robinson and John Ward Lockwood.[7]

Career

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Forsyth first worked as an instructor at the John Herron Art Institute,[3]: 223  Western College for Women, and the University of Texas at El Paso.[8] While at the John Herron Art Institute, she organized her students' work in Indianapolis,[9] though she and her father were part of a group of people who were fired and then allowed to return on a part-time basis.[10]

In 1940 she moved to the University of Texas in Austin where she established a printmaking program,[11][3]: 225  and was part of a cohort of artists joining the university at that time.[12] With supplies limited because of World War Two, she made projects work with limited supplies.[3]: 225–226 In 1973, Forsyth was promoted to professor emeritus.[8]

Forsyth is known for her printmaking and her watercolors.[13] She is known for her semiabstract explorations of natural forms like as waves, mountains, and, particularly, clouds.[14] Her subjects included outdoor scenes, such as Westcliffe, Colorado that was shown in the World's Fair in New York in 1939.[2] She helped Thomas Hart Benton with the Indiana murals for the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago in 1933.[15] Forsyth also worked as an illustrator for two books: Charles Garrett Vannest's Lincoln the Hoosier: Abraham Lincoln's Life in Indiana (1928)[16] and Esther Buffler's The Friends (1951).[17] Forsyth's work is in the permanent collection at the Blanton Museum of Art,[18] the McNay Art Museum,[19] the Indianapolis Museum of Art,[20] and the Dallas Museum of Art.[21]

Constance Forsyth died on January 22, 1987.[15][22]

Awards and honors

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Awards won by Forsyth include the Naomi Goldman prize and the Even Clendenin prize from the National Association of Women Artists.[8] The Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery acknowledged her efforts with a combined retrospective with William L. Lester in 1974, one year after her retirement.[23][8] On March 22, 1985 the Printmaker Emeritus Award was granted to her by the Southern Graphics Council in appreciation of her excellent achievements in the profession.[15][2]

References

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  1. ^ "Constance Forsyth opens first one-man show at Laguna Gloria". The Austin American. 1946-01-20. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  2. ^ a b c Kovinick, Phil (1998). An encyclopedia of women artists of the American West. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-292-79063-6.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Newton, Judith Vale (2004). Skirting the issue : stories of Indiana's historical women artists. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87195-177-9.
  4. ^ "Constance E. (Connie) Forsyth". indyencyclopedia.org. 2021-02-05. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
  5. ^ a b "Constance Forsyth". artcloud. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  6. ^ "Constance Forsyth's show now at salon". The Indianapolis Star. 1956-03-04. p. 103. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  7. ^ Morehouse, Lucille E. (1940-09-07). "Constance Forsyth to teach in Texas". The Indianapolis Star. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  8. ^ a b c d Dry, Margaret Taylor (1974-01-13). "Bold works complement delicate ones in show". Austin American-Statesman. pp. [1], [2]. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  9. ^ Morehouse, Lucille E. (1935-05-19). "Children's Art Exhibition in Herron Sculpture Court". The Indianapolis Star. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  10. ^ Warkel, Harriet G. (Harriet Garcia) (2003). The Herron chronicle. Bloomington: Herron School of Art, IUPUI, in association with Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34237-9.
  11. ^ Symmes, Marilyn (2008). "Review of Paths to the Press, Print-Making and American Women Artists, 1910-1960". Woman's Art Journal. 29 (1): 52–55. ISSN 0270-7993. JSTOR 20358149.
  12. ^ Douberley, Amanda (2007-08-24). "Making the scene". The Austin Chronicle.
  13. ^ Akhtar, Suzanne (July 25, 1999). "Two women flourished as artists despite obstacles in the early 1900s - Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  14. ^ Morehouse, Lucille E. (1939-04-30). "Art". The Indianapolis Star. p. 19. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  15. ^ a b c "TSHA | Forsyth, Constance". www.tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
  16. ^ Vannest, Charles Garrett (1928). Lincoln the Hoosier : Abraham Lincoln's life in Indiana. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. St. Louis : Eden Publishing House.
  17. ^ Bulletin of the Children's Book Center 1951-12: Vol 5 Iss 4. Johns Hopkins University Press. 1951.
  18. ^ "Constance Forsyth". Blanton Museum of Art.
  19. ^ "Constance Forsyth (American, b.1903, d.1987)". McNay Art Museum. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  20. ^ "Indianapolis Museum of Art Collection: Constance Forsyth". collection.imamuseum.org. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  21. ^ "Evening Sky - Constance Forsyth". Dallas Museum of Art. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  22. ^ "Obituary for Constance Forsyth (Aged 73)". The Indianapolis Star. 1987-01-25. p. 66. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
  23. ^ "Retired artists in show". Corpus Christi Caller-Times. 1974-01-20. p. 29. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
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