Ethel Magafan (August 10, 1916 – April 24, 1993) was an American painter and muralist.

Early life

Ethel Magafan was born in Chicago to Greek parents who had recently immigrated to the U.S. The family soon relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Magafan's artistic training occurred at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center under the tutelage of

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Boardman Robinson Boardman Michael Robinson (1876–1952) was a Canadian-American painter, illustrator and cartoonist. Biography Early years Boardman Robinson was born September 6, 1876 in Nova Scotia. He spent his childhood in England and Canada, before mov ...

and Frank Mechau, who hired Magafan and her twin sister, Jenne, to assist on mural projects. In 1937, aEthel won the commission to paint a mural in the U.S. post office in Auburn, Nebraska, making her the youngest recipient of such a commission. It would be the first of seven government-sponsored commissions for the artist.

Murals

Under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, several programs were created to employ Americans during the Great Depression. The Magafan twins worked under the New Deal's

Section of Painting and Sculpture The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury. Commonly known as the Section, it was rena ...

, a program that hired thousands of artists to paint murals in public spaces, particularly post offices. Ethel and her twin sister,

Jenne Magafan Jenne Magafan (1916–1952) was an American painter and muralist. During her short-lived career, she gained national prominence for her work in the New Deal art program. Her twin sister Ethel Magafan was also a muralist. Her 1941 mural ''Cowbo ...

, became widely known for their

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s painted during the Great Depression. Ethel received her first of seven Government commissions when she was commissioned to produce a painting for the United States post office in Auburn, Nebraska titled ''Threshing''.Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz, ''Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984. Other murals commissioned by the US Government hang in the

United States Senate Chamber The United States Senate Chamber is a room in the north wing of the United States Capitol that has served as the legislative chamber of the United States Senate, since January 4, 1859. The Senate first convened in its current meeting place afte ...

, the Social Security Building and the Recorder Deeds Building in Washington D.C., and in post offices in

Wynne, Arkansas Wynne is the county seat and largest city of Cross County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 8,367 at the 2010 Census. Nestled between the Arkansas Delta and Crowley's Ridge, Wynne is the closest city to the second-largest state park ...

titled ''Cotton Pickers'' in 1940; in

Madill, Oklahoma Madill is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Oklahoma, United States. It was named in honor of George Alexander Madill, an attorney for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. The population at the 2010 census was 3,770, an increas ...

titled ''Prairie Fire'' in 1941; and Englewood, Colorado titled ''The Horse Corral'' in 1942. Her final mural, entitled ''Grant in the Wilderness'', was installed in 1979 in the Chancellorsville Visitor Center at the Fredericksburg National Memorial Military Park in Virginia, She was a member of the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

.Opitz, Glenn B, Editor, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986

Death

Magafan died April 24, 1993 in Woodstock New York at the age of 76.

References

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magafan, Ethel 1916 births 1993 deaths Artists from Chicago Artists from Colorado Springs, Colorado American muralists American twins American women painters Artists of the American West 20th-century American painters Section of Painting and Sculpture artists 20th-century American women artists Women muralists