Marion Greenwood (N.A., 1909-1970) was raised in New York City and initially studied at the Art Students League. In her twenties, she was caught up in the muralist movement in Mexico and did many important works there and soon after in the U.S. as a WPA muralist during the 1930s (see Red Hook mural). After 1940, she continued primarily as a studio artist, winning recognition and a prize in the 1944 Carnegie National show. Her later work was deeply influenced by Chinese esthetics. In her own words, she "always had a consuming passion for other races and faces and the beauty of the different races of human beings, and just people. I just love to paint people" (see interview with Dorothy Seckler conducted on 1/31/64). Julian Huxley once wrote about Greenwood that a "universal human sympathy underlies all her work," well illustrated by this large and sensitive pastel drawing of a Mexican Indian mother and child, most likely dating from the late 1930s or early 1940s.



Signature above "Mexico" LL:


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