Mary Kirkwood (December 21, 1904 – June 17, 1995) was an American artist and a professor at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...

from 1930 to 1970. Kirkwood earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

in Missoula, Montana, and a

master of fine arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

, and completed graduate work at the Royal Art School in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

and the College of Art Study Abroad in Paris. The same year, she began teaching at the University of Idaho as a professor of painting and history of painting, and remained with the university for 40 years, until retiring in 1970. Kirkwood is credited with introducing University of Idaho students to modernist techniques and concepts. Her work is held in the collection of the University of Idaho and Portland Art Museum.

Background

Mary Kirkwood was born in

Hillsboro, Oregon Hillsboro ( ) is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many high-technology companies, ...

, on December 21, 1904, at the home of her grandparents. Her family lived in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

, Mexico, and

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

before settling in Missoula, Montana, when she was four years old. Kirkwood remained in Missoula and graduated from the

in 1926. Four years later, in 1930, she earned her master of fine arts degree from the

, where she was a member of Pi Lambda Delta.

Influence

A number of her commissioned portraits hang at the University of Idaho. A 1980 painting titled ''Kate'' is in the collections at the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

in Portland, Oregon. There is a scholarship in her name at the University of Idaho. The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon retains a 1930 painting in its archives of Adam and Eve, produced as part of Kirkwood's MFA degree.

Work

Agricultural Science Building Mural

"...nothing could deter Assistant Professor Mary Kirkwood of Art as she sat on a scaffold day after day, painting a mural in the building's lobby. The mural depicted the State's varied types of agriculture, from wheat farming on the rolling Palouse Hills to row-cropping on the level, irrigated Snake River Plain."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirkwood, Mary 1904 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters Painters from Oregon People from Hillsboro, Oregon University of Oregon alumni University of Montana alumni University of Idaho faculty American women academics