Val Costello - Artist Info

About Val Costello

  • Biography

    Born in Marion, Kansas on Feb. 14, 1875, Costello returned to Los Angeles in 1912 after a short time in New York. He remained a self-taught painter except for a brief period at the Art Students League of Los Angeles where he later was director from 1912-23.

    During the 1920s he was a successful businessman and painted in his leisure. During the 1930s he worked on the Federal Art Project as assistant to James Redmond on the Compton Post Office mural. Costello died in Los Angeles on May 8, 1937. An advocate of modernism, his canvases were considered avant garde during his lifetime.

    Exh:
    LA Painters Club, 1909; Chautaugua Ass'n (Long Beach), 1910; San Francisco Art Association, 1911-13; Calif. Art Cl

    Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
    American Art Annual 1917-33; Southern California Artists (Nancy Moure); California Arts and Architecture list, 1932.

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