Louis Pohl (1915 – December 22, 1999) was an American painter, illustrator, art teacher, printmaker and cartoonist. He was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

in 1915. A childhood illness made it impossible to walk without pain and prevented Pohl from entering school until he was 8 years old. To keep him occupied, his parents would give him papers and pencils with which to draw. When 14 years old, Pohl spent his summer caddying at a local golf course. A regular foursome of well-to-do women made an unusual wager—the loser would make their caddy's wish come true. Mrs. Yaeger paid for Pohl's tuition at the

Art Academy of Cincinnati The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...

for two years. He spent the next 4 years as a teacher's assistant. He did most of the hands-on teaching given to the art students, and he also taught art to underprivileged kids on Saturdays. Eventually, Pohl received his certificate of art upon the completion of a full standing nude copy of a Rembrandt that hung in the

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...

. When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

broke out, Pohl enlisted in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, which sent him to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

and assigned him to paint ships in dry dock. He was injured when a destroyer caught fire, and the explosion knocked him off the second level of a scaffold. Pohl was medically discharged and reluctantly returned to Cincinnati, where he was hired by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

to supervise other artists. In that capacity, he painted a portrait of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

. In 1946, Pohl got a call from a former teacher and friend, Bill Stamper, who had talked the Board of Directors of the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

into establishing a professional art school. Stamper invited Pohl to come to Hawaii to start the school, where Pohl taught for 35 years. Pohl also taught art at the Kamehameha Schools for 15 years. In 1960, he wrote and illustrated the book, ''It's Really Nice!'' published by Little, Brown & Company. Pohl died December 22, 1999, in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. His widow has continued to operate the Louis Pohl Gallery, also in Honolulu. The

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

, the Hawaii State Art Museum, the

, and the Isaacs Art Center ( Waimea, Hawaii), are among the public collections holding works by Pohl.

Selected works

Image:'Kids' painting by Louis Pohl.jpg, 'Kids', oil painting by Louis Pohl Image:'Kalapana, Day Seven', oil on canvas painting by --Louis Pohl--.jpg, 'Kalapana, Day Seven', oil on canvas painting by Louis Pohl File:'Pikai', lithograph by Louis Pohl, 1951.JPG, ''Pikai'', lithograph by Louis Pohl, 1951

References

* Haar, Francis and Neogy, Prithwish, ''Artists of Hawaii: Nineteen Painters and Sculptors'', University of Hawaii Press, 1974, 96–103. * Hartwell, Patricia L. (editor), ''Retrospective 1967-1987'',

Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts The Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts was established by the Hawaii State Legislature in 1965 to "promote, perpetuate, preserve, and encourage culture and the arts, history and the humanities as central to the quality of life of th ...

, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1987, p. 54 * Morse, Morse (ed.), ''Honolulu Printmakers'', Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2003, pp. 32 & 45, * Pohl, Louis, ''It's really nice!'', Boston, Little, Brown, 1960. * Yoshihara, Lisa A., ''Collective Visions, 1967-1997'', awaiiState Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1997, 64.

External links

Louis Pohl Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pohl, Louis 1915 births 1999 deaths American illustrators United States Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century American painters American male painters Artists from Honolulu Writers from Cincinnati Writers from Honolulu United States Navy sailors Volcano School painters Works Progress Administration workers Printmakers from Hawaii 20th-century American writers 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American male artists