Jump to content

Kyra Markham: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎External links: add category using AWB
 
(48 intermediate revisions by 27 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|American actress}}

{{Infobox artist
{{Infobox artist
| bgcolour = #6495ED
| name = Kyra Markham
| name = Kyra Markham
| image = Archives of American Art - Kyra Markham - 2263.jpg
| image = Archives of American Art - Kyra Markham - 2263.jpg
| imagesize =
| image_size =
| caption = Markham working on lithographic stone, c. 1937, from the [[Archives of American Art]]
| caption = Markham working on lithographic stone, c. 1937, from the [[Archives of American Art]]
| birth_name = Elaine Hyman
| birth_name = Elaine Hyman
| birth_date = {{birth-date|1891}}
| birth_date = {{birth-date|1891}}
| birth_place = [[Chicago, Illinois]]
| birth_place = [[Chicago, Illinois]]
| death_date = {{death year and age|1967|1891}}
| death_date = {{death year and age|1967|1891}}
| death_place = [[Port-au-Prince]], [[Haiti]]
| death_place = [[Port-au-Prince]], [[Haiti]]
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
| nationality = American
| field = [[Painting]], [[Printmaking]], [[Lithography]]<ref name="ifpda"/>
| known_for = [[Painting]], [[Printmaking]], [[Lithography]]<ref name="ifpda"/>
| training = [[Art Students League]]
| training = [[Art Students League]]
| movement = [[Realism (arts)|Realism]], [[Social realism]]
| movement = [[Realism (arts)|Realism]], [[Social realism]]
| works =
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Lloyd Wright]]|1922|1927|reason=div}}
⚫
| patrons =
* {{marriage|David Gaither|1927|1958|end=died}}
| influenced by = [[Alexander Abels]]
⚫
}}
| influenced =
| notable_works =
⚫
| patrons =
| awards = Mary S. Collins Prize, Philadelphia Print Club annual exhibition, 1935<ref>{{Cite web
| awards = Mary S. Collins Prize, Philadelphia Print Club annual exhibition, 1935<ref>{{Cite web
| title = Keith Sheridan Fine Prints - Kyra Markham
| title = Keith Sheridan Fine Prints - Kyra Markham
| accessdate = 2011-12-18
| access-date = 2011-12-18
| url = http://keithsheridan.com/markham.html
| url = http://keithsheridan.com/markham.html
}}</ref>
}}</ref>
}}
}}


'''Kyra Markham''' (1891–1967) was an actress, figurative painter and [[Printmaking|printmaker]]. Markham was briefly married to the architect [[Lloyd Wright]], and five years later, married David Stoner Gaither. She worked for the [[Federal Arts Project]], creating works of [[social realism]] that documented American life in the 1930s. During [[World War II]], her art was focused on the propaganda effort against the Nazis.
'''Kyra Markham''' (born '''Elaine Hyman,''' 1891–1967) was an actress, figurative painter and [[Printmaking|printmaker]]. Markham was briefly married to the architect [[Lloyd Wright]], and five years later, married the [[scenographer]] David Stoner Gaither. She worked for the [[Federal Arts Project]], creating works of [[social realism]] that documented American life in the 1930s. During [[World War II]], her art was focused on the propaganda effort against the Nazis.


==Biography==
==Biography==
Markham was born Elaine Hyman in [[Chicago, Illinois]]. She studied at the [[Chicago Art Institute]] from 1907 to 1919, and subsequently worked as a [[mural]]ist and printmaker.
Markham was born Elaine Hyman in [[Chicago, Illinois]]. She studied drawing at the [[Chicago Art Institute]] from 1907 to 1909, and subsequently worked as a [[mural]]ist and printmaker.


In addition to her work as an artist, Markham was an accomplished actress. She appeared with the Chicago Little Theater from 1909 to the 1920s, with the [[Provincetown Players]] from 1916, and in movies in [[Los Angeles]].<ref name="ifpda"/> In 1922 she married the architect [[Lloyd Wright]] and briefly had [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] as a father-in-law.<ref name=terra/> From the 1920s until the [[Great Depression in the United States|Depression]] she obtained commercial commissions from clubs and restaurants.<ref name=terra/>
In addition to her work as an artist, Markham was an accomplished actress. She appeared with the [[Chicago Little Theatre|Chicago Little Theater]] from 1909 to the 1920s, with the [[Provincetown Players]] from 1916, and in movies in [[Los Angeles]].<ref name="ifpda"/> She lived with the author and playwright [[Theodore Dreiser]] in [[Greenwich Village]] from 1914 to 1916, helping him with his writing, editing, and typing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Kyra Markham: American fantasist (1891-1967)|last=Witkin|first=Lee D.|publisher=Witkin Gallery|year=1981|location=New York}}</ref> Through Dreiser she became acquainted with [[H. L. Mencken|H.L Mencken]], [[Edgar Lee Masters]], and other writers.<ref name=":0" /> Due to [[Theodore Dreiser|Dreiser]]'s womanizing tendencies, Markham left him in 1916 and moved to Provincetown to escape his desperate pleas of reconciliation.<ref name=":0" /> While there, Markham continued acting alongside [[George Cram Cook]], [[Susan Glaspell|Susan Giaspell]], and [[Eugene O'Neill]], who founded the [[Provincetown Playhouse]].<ref name=":0" /> During this early stage, Markham supported herself by making bookjackets and illustrations, and later working as an art director for film companies like [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] and Metro.<ref name=":0" />


In 1922 she married the architect [[Lloyd Wright]] and briefly had [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] as a father-in-law.<ref name="terra">{{cite web|url=http://collections.terraamericanart.org/view/people/asitem/items$0040null:4/0|title=Kyra Markham|publisher=Terra Foundation for American Art|access-date=20 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426042246/http://collections.terraamericanart.org/view/people/asitem/items$0040null:4/0|archive-date=26 April 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1927, she married David Gaither<ref name="terra" /> and collaborated with him on the set design for a children's play, ''The Forest Ring,'' staged at the [[Nicholas Roerich Museum|Roerich Museum Theatre]] in 1930.<ref>{{Cite news
She lived with the writer [[Theodore Dreiser]] in [[Greenwich Village]], and later, with her partner David Gaither in [[Halifax, Vermont|West Halifax]], VT.<ref>{{Cite web
| title = Robert Strong Woodward, painter of New England scenes, barns, homesteads, pastures, churches, picturesque windows
| accessdate = 2011-12-18
⚫
| url = http://www.robertstrongwoodward.com/Scrapbook/KyraMarkham.html
}}</ref> She married Gaither in 1927<ref name=terra/> and collaborated with him on set design for a children's play, ''The Forest Ring,'' staged at the [[Nicholas Roerich Museum|Roerich Museum Theatre]] in 1930.<ref>{{Cite news
| title = Movie Review - - CHILDREN'S PLAYERS GIVE 'THE FOREST RING'; Group's First Offering at the Roerich Museum Theatre Is Fanatasy Charmingly Presented. - NYTimes.com
| title = Movie Review - - CHILDREN'S PLAYERS GIVE 'THE FOREST RING'; Group's First Offering at the Roerich Museum Theatre Is Fanatasy Charmingly Presented. - NYTimes.com
| accessdate = 2011-12-18
| access-date = 2011-12-18
| url = http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E04E3D61638E03ABC4E51DFB266838B629EDE
| url = https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E04E3D61638E03ABC4E51DFB266838B629EDE
| work=The New York Times
| work=The New York Times
| date=1930-04-26
| date=1930-04-26
}}</ref> Markham returned to the [[Art Students League]] in [[New York]] in 1930, where she studied with [[Alexander Abels]].<ref name=awaw/>
}}</ref> Gaither encouraged Markham to pursue "her first love, painting."<ref name=":0" /> Markham returned to the [[Art Students League]] in [[New York City]] in 1930, where she studied with [[Alexander Abels]].<ref name="awaw">{{cite web|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/9aa/9aa157.htm|title=Kyra Markham|publisher=American Women at Work|access-date=20 December 2011}}</ref> Before the stock market crash, Markham was a successful bathroom muralist.<ref name=":0" /> From the 1920s until the [[Great Depression in the United States|Depression]] she obtained commercial commissions from clubs and restaurants.<ref name="terra" />


In 1934, Markham organized her first solo exhibition in [[Ogunquit, Maine]], featuring prints, murals and [[Lithography|lithographs]].<ref name=terra/> In recognition of her work, Markham received the Mary S. Collins Prize at the Philadelphia Print Club's annual exhibition the following year. Markham sold work to the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]], the [[Library of Congress]] and the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].<ref name=terra/> From 1935 to 1937, she worked for the [[Federal Arts Project]], a [[New Deal]] program designed to provide employment for artists during the Depression.<ref name="ifpda">{{Cite web
During the 1930s, Markham's artistic career began to gain momentum, regularly winning prizes for her lithographic work.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|title=Does this painting portray local people?|last=Potter|first=Jeff|date=2012|work=The Common}}</ref> In 1934, Markham organized her first solo exhibition in [[Ogunquit, Maine]], featuring prints, murals and [[Lithography|lithographs]].<ref name="terra" /> Markham created works of [[social realism]] depicting street beggars, musicians, actors and scenes from department stores.<ref name="awaw" /> In recognition of her work, Markham received the prestigious Mary S. Collins Prize at the Philadelphia Print Club's annual exhibition the following year for her lithograph ''Elin and Maria'' (1934).<ref name=":0" /> Markham sold work to the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]], the [[Library of Congress]] and the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].<ref name="terra" /> From 1935 to 1937, she worked in the Graphic Arts Division for the [[Federal Arts Project]], a [[New Deal]] program designed to provide employment for artists during the Depression.<ref name="ifpda">{{Cite web
| title = Kyra Markham | publisher= IFPDA
| title = Kyra Markham
| publisher = IFPDA
| accessdate = 2011-12-18
| access-date = 2011-12-18
| url = http://www.ifpda.org/content/node/1437
| url = http://www.ifpda.org/content/node/1437
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120428235001/http://www.ifpda.org/content/node/1437
}}</ref> Markham created works of [[social realism]] depicting street beggars, musicians, actors and scenes from department stores.<ref name=awaw>{{cite web|title=Kyra Markham|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/9aa/9aa157.htm|publisher=American Women at Work|accessdate=20 December 2011}}</ref> Over the next twenty years she sold her designs to a postcard company, American Arts, Inc., and had her prints published in prestigious publications. The ''Hall of Inventions'' at the 1939 [[1939 New York World's Fair|World's Fair]] in New York included 40 [[diorama]]s by Markham. During [[World War II]] she created propaganda satirizing the Nazis and promoting [[patriotism]] at home. In 1946 she moved to [[Halifax, Vermont]].<ref name=terra/>
| archive-date = 2012-04-28
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> The ''Hall of Inventions'' at the 1939 [[1939 New York World's Fair|World's Fair]] in New York included 40 [[diorama]]s by Markham. During [[World War II]] she created propaganda satirizing the Nazis and promoting [[patriotism]] at home. In 1946 Markham and Gaither moved to an old farmhouse in [[Halifax, Vermont]].<ref name="terra" /> Markham stopped making prints after moving to her remote Vermont farm, but continued to work in more accessible mediums such as painting, drawing and ceramics.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s|last=Langa|first=Helen|publisher=University of California Press|year=2004|location=Berkeley}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> She was a member of the Southern Vermont Artists Association and participated in their annual exhibitions in Manchester.<ref name=":1" /> Over the next twenty years she sold her designs to a postcard company, American Arts, Inc., and had her prints published in prestigious publications. Markham also worked as an illustrator for Children's books during this time.<ref name=":1" />


Markham moved to [[Port-au-Prince]] in Haiti as a widow in 1960. She was still enthusiastic for her work, and her later work reflected Markham's new home.<ref name=terra>{{cite web|title=Kyra Markham|url=http://collections.terraamericanart.org/view/people/asitem/items$0040null:4/0|publisher=Terra Foundation for American Art|accessdate=20 December 2011}}</ref> Markham died in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1967.
Markham moved to [[Port-au-Prince]] in Haiti as a widow in 1960. She was still enthusiastic for her work, and her later work reflected Markham's new home.<ref name="terra" /> While living in Haiti, Markham continued to paint and established a salon for local celebrities, American expatriates, and island visitors.<ref name=":0" /> Markham died in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1967.


==References==
== Work ==

⚫
{{Commons category|Kyra Markham}}
=== Context and themes ===
In the time between the two World Wars, American Scene printmakers, like Markham, opposed the [[Etching revival|Etching Revival]] style and instead embraced [[lithography]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Balk|first=Eugene|year=1994|title=The 'American Scene' Print and the Cartoon|journal=Print Quarterly|volume=11|pages=379–94}}</ref> During the [[Great Depression]], lithography exploded – the [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]]/[[Federal Art Project|FAP]] alone published roughly 240,000 prints from 11,285 original images.<ref name=":3" /> Like Markham, many other artists working in this style, such as [[Mabel Dwight]], [[Reginald Marsh (artist)|Reginald Marsh]], [[Elizabeth Olds]], [[Caroline Durieux]], and Russell Limbach, used lithography as a vehicle to employ humor and satire of daily life.<ref name=":3" />

Often categorized as [[social realism]], Markham's work presents extracted scenes from everyday life in a dramatic manner, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.<ref name=":1" /> Markham's work explored the incredible and grim aspects of modern society with a strong interest in labor themes, like much of the socially concerned art of the 1930s.<ref name=":2" /> This examination of labor roles was especially vital during Depression-era politics, and Markham often expressed this theme through the environment she knew best: theater.<ref name=":2" /> A repeated theme in Markham's work, theater is presented in several prints through the unique perspective of the backstage.<ref name=":2" />

Although similar in subject matter to Mabel Dwight's ''Houston Street Burlesque'' (1928) and Elizabeth Olds' ''Burlesque'' (1939), Markham's ''Burlycue'' (1938) differs by focusing on the dancers identities as workers, rather than as objectified figures.<ref name=":2" /> Markham emphasizes the dancers confidence, workplace solidarity, and relaxed interactions – allowing viewers to see the Burlesque in a new light and shifting the mood from tantalizing to lighthearted amusement.<ref name=":2" /> Although many of her prints depict scenes of entertainment, whether backstage in the dressing room or performing under the spotlight, Markham is also interested in other leisure activities such as attending lively night clubs and social gatherings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collection.terraamericanart.org/view/people/asitem/items$0040null:4/0|title=Kyra Markham Biography|website=Terra Foundation}}</ref> A mural she painted for the Community Hall in West Halifax, Vermont depicts a barn-raising. Often evoking a dream-like state, Markham's use of light, combined with detailed realism, results in fantastical compositions of daily life (9). Similarly to [[Paul Cadmus]] and [[George Tooker]], Markham injected fantasy into the social realist genre.<ref name=":0" />

== List of works ==
* ''[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kyra-markham-nightclub Nightclub]'', 1935, lithograph.
* ''[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kyra-markham-fishermans-luck Fisherman's Luck], 1938,'' lithograph.
* ''[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kyra-markham-hotcha Hotcha],'' 1938, aquatint.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/ohmpeer-HNTpt-PH1YkQuAEp9EGLlQ2 Ohmpeer],'' 1944, lithograph.
* ''[https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Bleecker-Street--Fire-Hydrant/D4E2C87F9D64DAF6 Bleecker Street Fire Hydrant]'', 1942, lithograph.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/july-4th-gQIs_MyJKS3FX3HuiikgoA2 July 4th, 1936]'', 1936, lithograph.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/cherry-blossom-in-brooklyn-Cz60Dzp9UN5f7NIObfdenw2 Cherry Blossom in Brooklyn]'', 1937, lithograph.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/the-silver-trumpets-of-the-rain-Do2qr3gMeI4LMIzsnOWHWQ2 The Silver Trumpets of the Rain]'', 1936, lithograph.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/new-years-eve-in-greenwich-village-tlC2ZArNWPdQWbBTbAyE0Q2 New Year's Eve in Greenwich Village]'', 1938, oil on canvas laid on masonite.
* ''[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kyra-markham-flag-raising-in-leroy-street Flag Raising in Leroy Street]'', 1942, lithograph.
* ''[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kyra-markham-mature-vision Mature Vision]'', 1935, lithograph.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/stage-door-johnnie-corg_0YyoajYreGy0LTXrA2 Stage Door Johnnie]'', 1937, lithograph.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/sailors-in-penn-station-_mlsjQ0_52aRPQmkT4TE2A2 Sailors at Penn Station]'', 1944, lithograph.
* ''[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kyra-markham-fit-yourself-shop The Fit Yourself Shop]'', 1935, lithograph.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/the-show-is-over-5BzeJ0WRoaNabZW466Zbig2 The Show is Over],'' 1936, lithograph.
* ''[http://www.artnet.com/artists/kyra-markham/at-her-dressing-table-lWdJHwYAgZJgPCn4fyXYJA2 At Her Dressing Table]'', 1939, oil on canvas board.
* ''[http://www.paramourfinearts.com/photos/Markham-Laughing%20Gas.jpg Laughing Gas (Theodore Dreiser's Operation)]'', 1943, lithograph.
* ''[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kyra-markham-summer-idyll Summer Idyll]'', 1941, aquatint.
* ''[http://collection.artbma.org/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/3214/1853/displayDate-desc;jsessionid=77E48F799EBC378721BB38283579AD48?t:state:flow=3af6f789-7534-45fc-a170-85f43953ebbd Burlycue]'', 1936, lithograph.
* ''[http://artsalesindex.artinfo.com/auctions/--2953106/-1961 Haitian Village Women]'', 1961, oil on masonite.
* ''[http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/50768.html?mulR=2051860556%7C2 Elin and Maria]'', 1934, lithograph.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


==Further reading==
==Further reading==
*{{cite book | title=Kyra Markham : American fantasist (1891-1967) | publisher=Kyra Markham; Lee D Witkin; Witkin Gallery | author=Markham, Kyra | year=1981 | location=New York | oclc= 40638945}}, Catalog of an exhibition held at the Witkin Gallery, New York, N.Y., Oct. 13-Nov. 7, 1981.
*{{cite book | title=Kyra Markham : American fantasist (1891-1967) | publisher=Kyra Markham; Lee D Witkin; Witkin Gallery | author=Markham, Kyra | year=1981 | location=New York | isbn=9780520231559 | oclc= 40638945}}, Catalog of an exhibition held at the Witkin Gallery, New York, N.Y., Oct. 13-Nov. 7, 1981.
*{{cite book | title=Romantic ... I call it | publisher=Boni & Liveright | author=Borden, Ethel; [[Noël Coward]]; illustrated by Kyra Markham | year=1926 | location=New York | oclc = 5026265}}
*{{cite book | title=Romantic ... I call it | publisher=Boni & Liveright | author=Borden, Ethel | author2=Noël Coward | author2-link=Noël Coward | others=Illustrated by Kyra Markham | year=1926 | location=New York | oclc = 5026265}}


==External links==
==External links==
⚫
{{Commons category|Kyra Markham}}
*[http://www.robertstrongwoodward.com/Friends/KyraMarkham.html Works by Kyra Markam]
⚫
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120426060813/http://www.robertstrongwoodward.com/Friends/KyraMarkham.html Works by Kyra Markam]
*[http://www.christies.com/Lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4561345 ''Bleeker Street fire hydrant], by Kyra Markham
*[http://www.christies.com/Lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4561345 ''Bleeker Street fire hydrant''], by Kyra Markham
*[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/goldstein/goldcity.html ''Flag Raising in Leroy St, 1942''], lithograph at the [[Library of Congress]]
*[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/goldstein/goldcity.html ''Flag Raising in Leroy St, 1942''], lithograph at the [[Library of Congress]]
*[http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/kyra-markham-july-4th-1936/1589151/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=1589151&sid=2c95bc5b-bd23-421b-a340-5002c7b37582 ''July 4th, 1936'']
*[http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/kyra-markham-july-4th-1936/1589151/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=1589151&sid=2c95bc5b-bd23-421b-a340-5002c7b37582 ''July 4th, 1936'']
*[http://keithsheridan.com/markham.html ''Lockout''], lithograph by Kyra Markham
*[http://keithsheridan.com/markham.html ''Lockout''], lithograph by Kyra Markham
Line 72: Line 107:
{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME = Markham, Kyra
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Elaine Hyman, Kyra Markham Gaither
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Painter, actress
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1891
| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Chicago, Illinois]]
| DATE OF DEATH = 1967
| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Port-au-Prince]]
⚫
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Markham, Kyra}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Markham, Kyra}}
[[Category:American stage actresses]]
[[Category:American stage actresses]]
[[Category:Artists from Chicago, Illinois]]
[[Category:Artists from Chicago]]
⚫
[[Category:Federal Art Project]]
⚫
[[Category:American women painters]]
[[Category:20th-century American painters]]
[[Category:20th-century American painters]]
[[Category:American lithographers]]
[[Category:American lithographers]]
[[Category:Artists from New York]]
[[Category:Art Students League of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Art Students League of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Public Works of Art Project]]
[[Category:Federal Art Project artists]]
[[Category:People of the New Deal arts projects]]
[[Category:Actresses from Chicago]]
[[Category:Actresses from Chicago, Illinois]]
[[Category:1891 births]]
[[Category:1891 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
Line 100: Line 122:
[[Category:American film actresses]]
[[Category:American film actresses]]
[[Category:American muralists]]
[[Category:American muralists]]
[[Category:20th-century women artists]]
[[Category:20th-century American women painters]]
⚫
[[Category:American women muralists]]
[[Category:20th-century American printmakers]]
⚫
[[Category:Women lithographers]]
[[Category:20th-century lithographers]]

Latest revision as of 07:35, 31 March 2024

Kyra Markham
Markham working on lithographic stone, c. 1937, from the Archives of American Art
Born
Elaine Hyman

1891 (1891)
Chicago, Illinois
Died1967 (aged 75–76)
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
NationalityAmerican
EducationArt Students League
Known forPainting, Printmaking, Lithography[1]
MovementRealism, Social realism
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1922; div. 1927)​
David Gaither
​
​
(m. 1927; died 1958)​
AwardsMary S. Collins Prize, Philadelphia Print Club annual exhibition, 1935[2]

Kyra Markham (born Elaine Hyman, 1891–1967) was an actress, figurative painter and printmaker. Markham was briefly married to the architect Lloyd Wright, and five years later, married the scenographer David Stoner Gaither. She worked for the Federal Arts Project, creating works of social realism that documented American life in the 1930s. During World War II, her art was focused on the propaganda effort against the Nazis.

Biography

[edit]

Markham was born Elaine Hyman in Chicago, Illinois. She studied drawing at the Chicago Art Institute from 1907 to 1909, and subsequently worked as a muralist and printmaker.

In addition to her work as an artist, Markham was an accomplished actress. She appeared with the Chicago Little Theater from 1909 to the 1920s, with the Provincetown Players from 1916, and in movies in Los Angeles.[1] She lived with the author and playwright Theodore Dreiser in Greenwich Village from 1914 to 1916, helping him with his writing, editing, and typing.[3] Through Dreiser she became acquainted with H.L Mencken, Edgar Lee Masters, and other writers.[3] Due to Dreiser's womanizing tendencies, Markham left him in 1916 and moved to Provincetown to escape his desperate pleas of reconciliation.[3] While there, Markham continued acting alongside George Cram Cook, Susan Giaspell, and Eugene O'Neill, who founded the Provincetown Playhouse.[3] During this early stage, Markham supported herself by making bookjackets and illustrations, and later working as an art director for film companies like Fox and Metro.[3]

In 1922 she married the architect Lloyd Wright and briefly had Frank Lloyd Wright as a father-in-law.[4] In 1927, she married David Gaither[4] and collaborated with him on the set design for a children's play, The Forest Ring, staged at the Roerich Museum Theatre in 1930.[5] Gaither encouraged Markham to pursue "her first love, painting."[3] Markham returned to the Art Students League in New York City in 1930, where she studied with Alexander Abels.[6] Before the stock market crash, Markham was a successful bathroom muralist.[3] From the 1920s until the Depression she obtained commercial commissions from clubs and restaurants.[4]

During the 1930s, Markham's artistic career began to gain momentum, regularly winning prizes for her lithographic work.[7] In 1934, Markham organized her first solo exhibition in Ogunquit, Maine, featuring prints, murals and lithographs.[4] Markham created works of social realism depicting street beggars, musicians, actors and scenes from department stores.[6] In recognition of her work, Markham received the prestigious Mary S. Collins Prize at the Philadelphia Print Club's annual exhibition the following year for her lithograph Elin and Maria (1934).[3] Markham sold work to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Library of Congress and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[4] From 1935 to 1937, she worked in the Graphic Arts Division for the Federal Arts Project, a New Deal program designed to provide employment for artists during the Depression.[1] The Hall of Inventions at the 1939 World's Fair in New York included 40 dioramas by Markham. During World War II she created propaganda satirizing the Nazis and promoting patriotism at home. In 1946 Markham and Gaither moved to an old farmhouse in Halifax, Vermont.[4] Markham stopped making prints after moving to her remote Vermont farm, but continued to work in more accessible mediums such as painting, drawing and ceramics.[8][7] She was a member of the Southern Vermont Artists Association and participated in their annual exhibitions in Manchester.[7] Over the next twenty years she sold her designs to a postcard company, American Arts, Inc., and had her prints published in prestigious publications. Markham also worked as an illustrator for Children's books during this time.[7]

Markham moved to Port-au-Prince in Haiti as a widow in 1960. She was still enthusiastic for her work, and her later work reflected Markham's new home.[4] While living in Haiti, Markham continued to paint and established a salon for local celebrities, American expatriates, and island visitors.[3] Markham died in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1967.

Work

[edit]

Context and themes

[edit]

In the time between the two World Wars, American Scene printmakers, like Markham, opposed the Etching Revival style and instead embraced lithography.[9] During the Great Depression, lithography exploded – the WPA/FAP alone published roughly 240,000 prints from 11,285 original images.[9] Like Markham, many other artists working in this style, such as Mabel Dwight, Reginald Marsh, Elizabeth Olds, Caroline Durieux, and Russell Limbach, used lithography as a vehicle to employ humor and satire of daily life.[9]

Often categorized as social realism, Markham's work presents extracted scenes from everyday life in a dramatic manner, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.[7] Markham's work explored the incredible and grim aspects of modern society with a strong interest in labor themes, like much of the socially concerned art of the 1930s.[8] This examination of labor roles was especially vital during Depression-era politics, and Markham often expressed this theme through the environment she knew best: theater.[8] A repeated theme in Markham's work, theater is presented in several prints through the unique perspective of the backstage.[8]

Although similar in subject matter to Mabel Dwight's Houston Street Burlesque (1928) and Elizabeth Olds' Burlesque (1939), Markham's Burlycue (1938) differs by focusing on the dancers identities as workers, rather than as objectified figures.[8] Markham emphasizes the dancers confidence, workplace solidarity, and relaxed interactions – allowing viewers to see the Burlesque in a new light and shifting the mood from tantalizing to lighthearted amusement.[8] Although many of her prints depict scenes of entertainment, whether backstage in the dressing room or performing under the spotlight, Markham is also interested in other leisure activities such as attending lively night clubs and social gatherings.[10] A mural she painted for the Community Hall in West Halifax, Vermont depicts a barn-raising. Often evoking a dream-like state, Markham's use of light, combined with detailed realism, results in fantastical compositions of daily life (9). Similarly to Paul Cadmus and George Tooker, Markham injected fantasy into the social realist genre.[3]

List of works

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "Kyra Markham". IFPDA. Archived from the original on 2012-04-28. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  2. ^ "Keith Sheridan Fine Prints - Kyra Markham". Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Witkin, Lee D. (1981). Kyra Markham: American fantasist (1891-1967). New York: Witkin Gallery.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Kyra Markham". Terra Foundation for American Art. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
  5. ^ "Movie Review - - CHILDREN'S PLAYERS GIVE 'THE FOREST RING'; Group's First Offering at the Roerich Museum Theatre Is Fanatasy Charmingly Presented. - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 1930-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  6. ^ a b "Kyra Markham". American Women at Work. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d e Potter, Jeff (2012). "Does this painting portray local people?". The Common.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Langa, Helen (2004). Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  9. ^ a b c Balk, Eugene (1994). "The 'American Scene' Print and the Cartoon". Print Quarterly. 11: 379–94.
  10. ^ "Kyra Markham Biography". Terra Foundation.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Markham, Kyra (1981). Kyra Markham : American fantasist (1891-1967). New York: Kyra Markham; Lee D Witkin; Witkin Gallery. ISBN 9780520231559. OCLC 40638945., Catalog of an exhibition held at the Witkin Gallery, New York, N.Y., Oct. 13-Nov. 7, 1981.
  • Borden, Ethel; Noël Coward (1926). Romantic ... I call it. Illustrated by Kyra Markham. New York: Boni & Liveright. OCLC 5026265.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kyra Markham.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kyra_Markham&oldid=1216480670"