Otis William Oldfield (July 3, 1890 – May 18, 1969) was a San Francisco painter, printmaker and art educator.

Early life and education

Otis William Oldfield was born on July 3, 1890, in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, California. He attended Sutter High School but at age 16 he dropped out of school in order to work. In 1908, he attended Best’s Art School in San Francisco, operated by Alice Leveque Best and Arthur William Best. In 1911, he moved to Paris to attend

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

. He remained in France until 1924, then moved back to San Francisco.

Career

In 1925, Oldfield had a successful solo show at San Francisco’s Galerie Beaux Arts, an exhibit of work made while he was living in France. In 1929, Oldfield had two exhibitions of San Francisco water scenes at Montross Gallery in New York City. The following year in 1930, Oldfield worked with architect Timothy Pflueger to create painted windows for the bar at the

Pacific Coast Stock Exchange The Pacific Exchange was a regional stock exchange in California, from 1956 to 2006. Its main exchange floor and building were in San Francisco, California, with a branch building in Los Angeles, California. In 1882, the San Francisco Stock an ...

. In 1934, he was one of 26 artists selected to paint murals in the newly erected

Coit Tower Coit Tower is a tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, offering panoramic views over the city and the bay. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's beq ...

. One of his frescos there is titled ''Shipping Activities Inside the Golden Gate''.

Teaching

Starting in 1925, he taught at California School of Fine Art (now

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

) painting and drawing courses. From 1946 until 1952 he taught at the

California College of Arts and Crafts California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the mo ...

(now called California College of the Arts or CCA). Oldfield's students included Yun Gee,

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...

, and

Nathan Oliveira Nathan Oliveira (December 19, 1928 – November 13, 2010) was an American Painting, painter, printmaker, and sculptor, born in Oakland, California to immigrant Portuguese people, Portuguese parents. Since the late 1950s, Oliveira has been the s ...

Death and legacy

Oldfield died on May 18, 1969, in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California. He was survived by his wife , who continued to paint until her death in 1981. His work is in public museum collections include at

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 ...

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

References

External links

*
Otis Oldfield's artist estate website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oldfield, Otis California College of the Arts faculty Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area American muralists Public Works of Art Project artists 1890 births 1969 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters San Francisco Art Institute faculty Académie Julian alumni 20th-century American male artists