Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Russian emigrant parents, Edward Biberman became a painter and muralist of Social-Realist subjects, as well as a portraitist and painter of desert landscapes.

He was a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance in Philadelphia and turned to art as a career while recuperating from a broken leg shortly after earning that degree. He enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and then spent three years studying in Paris. He returned to the United States in 1929, and painted in Maine and New York City, where he did portraits of artists, actors, and dancers. He had the honor of being selected by Alfred Barr and Jere Abbott, co-directors of the newly founded Museum of Modern Art, to participate in a show of up and coming young artists called "Forty-six Under Thirty-five."

In 1930, he first visited the Southwest, spending the summer in Taos, New Mexico, where he associated with Georgia O'Keeffe and John Marin as well as many other artists. In 1931, he lived for the summer on a Navajo trading post at Monument Valley on the Arizona and Utah border, and did portraits of Navajos and painted desert landscapes, including one titled Mitten Buttes, Monument Valley.

He moved permanently to the Los Angeles area in 1936, a place he first visited on his trip to Monument Valley. During the following years, he was commissioned for murals throughout the country, and his images of Navajos and the desert appear in a number of his 1930s murals. As a muralist, he was influenced by Diego Rivera, whom he had met in New York.

Biberman taught at Art Center College in Los Angeles from 1930 to 1950, and lectured widely on art subjects for the University Extension of U.C.L.A.

He died in Los Angeles in 1986.

Some of his Arizona paintings, as well as many of his other works, are illustrated in his book, Time and Circumstance, Forty Years of Painting, the Ward Ritchie Press, 1968.

Submitted by Ron Gerba, Prescott, Arizona

Source:
Edward Biberman, Time and Circumstance: Forty Years of Painting by Edward Biberman

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 23, 1904 of Russian emigres, Edward Biberman earned a degree in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1924. He studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and in Paris for five years.

He worked in New York City before settling in Los Angeles in 1936. He taught at the Art Center College from 1938-50, and from 1950-1980s lectured at UCLA Extension, UC Irving Extension, UC San Diego Extension, Loyola University, and others.

He authored two books on his paintings: The Best Untold, (1954) and Time and Circumstance (1968).

Biberman died on January 27, 1986 at his Hollywood Hills home. His paintings include portraits, figure studies, western landscapes, architectural subjects, and social themes.

Memberships:
National Society of Mural Painters.

Exhibition:
American Artists Congress, 1936; San Francisco Art Association, 1937; Golden Gate International Exposition 1939; California Art Club, 1943; Whitney Museum (NYC), 1953; 35 solo exhibitions in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, and California.

Collections:
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art; New Mexico Art Association; Houston Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Palm Springs Desert Museum; CSL; Stanford Univ. Library; Portland (OR) Library; Triton Museum (Santa Clara); DeSaisset Museum (Univ. of Santa Clara); LA Post Office (mural); LA Federal Bldg (mural); Venice (CA) Post Office (mural).