Gerald Cassidy,
known for his subjects of the Southwest including Indian portraits and for his
lithography, was born in Covington, KY., and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He studied at the Mechanic Institute in Cincinnati and with Frank Duveneck at the
Cincinnati Art Academy. He worked as an Art Director at a lithography
firm in New York City and during this time, studied briefly at the National
Academy of Design and the Art Students League.
Diagnosed with
tuberculosis at age 20, Cassidy went to a sanitarium in New Mexico, a move that
introduced him to life in the West. He first earned his living by
painting portraits of Indians and scenes of the Southwest that were intended to
be reproduced on postcards. When his health got better, he moved to
Denver. and there established his reputation as a lithographer by doing work
that was used for magazine illustrations, murals, and ads.
In 1912, he married
the sculptor and writer Ina Sizer Davis, who became a noted author of numerous
articles on New Mexico art colonies. The couple settled in Santa Fe where
Cassidy began a project to document the culture of Pueblo Indians. The
commission to do this work came from Edgar L Hewitt, Director of the School of
American Archaeology. Hewitt regarded the life of the Indians as the
counterpoint to the materialism of white civilization. Cassidy became so
committed to this project that he decorated his home with altar paintings from
the ruined Nambe mission church.
In Santa Fe, he was
only the third artist of English origin to establish residency there.
During this time, he changed his signature from Gerald Ira Diamond Cassidy to
Gerald Cassidy, placing the Tewa Indian sun symbol (symbol of circle with four
lines) between his first and last name. He also painted many landscapes and
large historic murals for commercial buildings including the Indian Arts
Building.
A highlight of his
career occurred in 1915 when he was awarded the Grand Prize and Gold Medal for
his murals in the Indian Arts Building, at the Panama-California International
Exposition, San Diego, California.
Nineteen years
later, in 1934, Cassidy met an untimely death from lead poisoning while working
on a mural for the Federal Building in Santa Fe.
His work is
represented in national and international museums including the Freer
Collection, Washington, D. C., Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM, San Diego
Museum, San Diego, CA, City Art Museum, Baroda, Bombay, India, City Art Museum,
Berlin, Germany, and The Luxembourg, Paris.
(Courtesy of AskArt)
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