In 1940, Arthur Osver settled in New York's Greenwich Village and went on to teach at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and then Columbia University. He was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1952, and he visited Italy and France a number of times throughout that decade. He also taught at Yale University and Cooper Union in New York in the late 1950s.

Osver came to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1960, serving as Professor of Art at Washington University until his retirement in 1981. He was the third high-profile artist attracted to the university by Dean Kenneth Hudson, who also hired Max Beckmann and Philip Guston.

Paintings by Osver appear in private collections and museums all over the world. Museum collectors include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

A retrospective exhibition of Osver's work was held at The Saint Louis Art Museum in March 2000. Known for painterly abstractions in glorious colors, Osver's latest body of work includes a new timely element: text from graphics and newsprint.

Source:
Elliot Smith Contemporary Art

Arthur Osver passed away in 2006 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Born: 1912(Chicago) - 2006

Education: Northwestern University
Art Institute of Chicago under Boris Anisfeld

Teaching Experience:

1947 Brooklyn Museum Art School
1950-51 Columbia University
1954 Artist-in-Residence at University of Florida
1955 Cooper Union
1958 Cooper Union
1960-81 Washington University, St. Louis
1981 Professor of Art, Emeritus, Washington University

Awards and Grants:

1936 Awarded James Nelson Raymond Travelling Fellowship by Art Institute of Chicago
1948 Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
1949 Renewed Guggenheim Fellowship
1952 Awarded Prix de Rome
1953 Renewed Prix de Rome

Other distinctions:

1956-57 Visiting Critic at Yale University
1956 International Fulbright Commission
1957-58 Painter-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome
1959-70 Guggenheim Advisory Board
1960-72 American Academy in Rome Advisory Board
1967-68 Trip to Europe on National Endowment for the Arts Sabbatical Leave Grant
1975-78 Trustee: St. Louis Art Museum
1959-89 Listed "Who's Who"

Selected One-Person Exhibitions:

1940 Wilson Gallery, Chicago
1943 Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York
1947 Grand Central Moderns, New York
1948 University of Chattanooga
1949 Grand Central Moderns, New York
Syracuse University
1950 Hamline University
1951 Grand Central Moderns, New York
University of Florida
1954 Fairweather-Garnett Gallery, Evanston, Illinois1955 University of Florida
Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
1957 Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
1959 Grand Central Moderns, New York
Philadelphia Art Alliance
1962 Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
1964 Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
St. Louis Artists Guild Retrospective
Milton College, Milton, Wisconsin
1966 Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
Maryville College, Missouri
Martin Schweig Gallery, St. Louis
Coe College, Cedar Rapids 1966 Fine Arts Festival
1968 Iowa State "FOCUS" Art Festival, Ames, Iowa
Gallery of Loretto-Hilton Center, St. Louis
1969 Martin Schweig Gallery, St. Louis
St. Louis Artists' Guild
1973 St. Louis Art Museum
Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
1975 Terry Moore Gallery, St. Louis
1977 Terry Moore Gallery, St. Louis
1981 Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
Timothy Burns Gallery, St. Louis
1982 Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
1984 Timothy Burns Gallery, St. Louis
1985 Art Expo, Chicago
Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
1987 B.Z. Wagman Gallery, St. Louis
1988 Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
1989 Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Philip Samuels, St. Louis, Missouri
1991 Randall Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
1996 Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, Missouri
2000 Arthur Osver: The Saint Louis Years, The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri
2004 Osver's Osvers, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis

Literature:

Cornelia Homburg, Arthur Osver: The Saint Louis Years, exhibition catalogue with an essay by
Alexandra Bellos Goldsand, The Saint Louis Museum of Art, Saint Louis, Missouri, 2000.

Selected Major Exhibitions:

American Academy and Institution of Arts and Letters
Art Institute of Chicago
Brooklyn Museum
Carnegie Institute
Corcoran Gallery
Des Moines Art Center
Detroit Institute
Duncan Phillips Gallery
Galeria Nazionale Roma
Gallery of Modern Art, Tokyo
John Herron Art Institute
Metropolitan Museum
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art
Philadelphia Museum
Toledo Art Museum
Venice Biennale
Virginia Museum
Walker Art Center
Whitney Museum

Public Collections:

Albrecht Art Gallery, St. Joseph, Missouri: Study 6-71
Art Institute of Chicago: Soloist
City Museum of St. Louis: Under the Tracks; Duo
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center: Tank & Billboards
Davenport Art Gallery: The Enclosure
Des Moines Art Center: Sky Lights
Duncan Phillips Collection: Grey Night
Houston Museum of Fine Arts: The Tanks
Hunter College, New York: Staten Island Landscape
Joe & Emily Lowe Art Gallery, Florida
John Burroughs School, St. Louis: Soliloquy; Study 1968
Krannert Art Museum, Illinois
Laura Musser Art Gallery, Muscatine, Iowa: GP 11-72
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Two Ventilators
Montclair Art Museum: On Many Levels
Mulvane Art Center, Topeka, Kansas: Regal Hour
Museum of Modern Art, New York: Melancholy of a Rooftop
Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro: Forest of Chimneys
New Orleans Museum of Modern Art: Smokestack & Tank
Peabody Museum: City Patterns
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art: Majestic Tenement
Philadelphia Museum: The Framework
Ringling Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida: Study
Rochester Memorial Art Gallery: The Studio
St. Louis University: Blue Cluster
St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts: Duo
Smithsonian Institute: Voyage
Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale: October's Gift
Syracuse University: Evening Smoke; The Ladder
Toledo Museum of Art: The Steam Jet
University of Cincinnati: Orange Landscape
University of Georgia: The Grove
University of Illinois: Chimneys & Buildings
University of Michigan: The Cluster
University of Minnesota: Interior
University of Nebraska: Fire-Escape & Facade
Walker Art Center: Greenpoint Chimneys
Washburn University of Topeka
Washington University of St. Louis: The Tall Green; GP 4:72
Whitney Museum of American Art: Big Withalacoochee
Wilmington Art Museum: Rainpipes

Corporate Collections:

Abbott Laboratories
Anders, Minckler, Diehl
Bank for Savings & Loan Association
Bill Blass
Bliss & Laughlin, Inc.
Brown Group
Citizen's National Bank, Denison, Texas
Continental Illinois Bank
Crocker National Bank, San Francisco
Design Unit, Chicago
Draper & Kramer
Theodore P. Desloge
First National Bank, Chicago
Friedman-Koven
Greyhound Exhibitgroup
Harvey Hammerman
Ben Heineman (Northwest Industries)
Inland Steel Corporation
International Business Machines
International Minerals & Chemical
Johnson-Whitty
Kent Kehr
A.M. Keil
Leibman, Williams, Bennett, Baird, Minnow
Lewis, Rice, Tucker, Allen and Chubb
Linclay Corporation
Lubliner and Himmel
May Company
Mercantile Bank, St. Louis
Mercantile National Bank, Dallas
Morton Interiors
Morton D. May Collection
Needham, Harper & Steers
Peat Marwick Mitchell
Post, Keyes & Gardner, Inc.
Price-Cushman
Pure Oil Company
J.A. Robertson
Rosenthal Associates
Schiff Hardin Waite Dorshel & Britton
Seyfarth Shaw Fairweather & Geraldson
Southwestern Bell
Daniel Sullivan
Time, Inc.
U.S. Savings and Loan Association
Walter E. Heller
Sam Weintraub