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Alton Tobey

Biography: It is with profound sadness that that the family of artist Alton S. Tobey must announce that Alton died on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 after a long illness. Alton was an internationally renowned artist whose murals are in public places worldwide from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. His historical paintings have appeared in LIFE and many other magazines and dozens of books, and he was a founder of the Curvilinear School of painting. His family just recently joyfully celebrated his 90th birthday in November and unveiled the website that commemorates his life's work, at http://www.altontobey.org. Services were held on Friday, Jan. 7 in Mamaroneck, New York. For more information, see the full text of the press release on his death at http://www.altontobey.com/PRESS.html. Alton S. Tobey was born in Middletown CT in 1914 and showed early promise in art when he won a competition sponsored by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art at the age of 9. He went on to receive his BFA and MFA at the Yale School of Fine Art, and taught there for a number of years, while also maintaining his own private art school and portrait studio. During this time, he also received commissions for two WPA murals in public places in his home state of Connecticut, which led him into a successful career as a muralist. His murals are in the collections of The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC; at The General Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, VA; aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Interpid’s Sea Air Space Museum in New York City and in many other public places, corporate headquarters and in collections of private patrons both in the United States and abroad. His insistence in technical and historical accuracy in all his work gained him the attention of a number of book and magazine publishers, and led to his art being published extensively in LIFE magazine covers and features; he created over 350 historical paintings for “The Golden Books History of The United States” series; his works are in a book on the uses of energy throughout the ages entitled “Man and Power,” in “Epic of Man” and in many other publications. His work and techniques in research and illustration were the subject of a feature article by Eve Medoff in “American Artist” magazine in May 1976; and hundreds of articles and reviews of his work were in both national and international newspapers and magazines. A de... to see complete biography, click on artists name Country: USA Birthyear: 1914 Galleries: Wadsworth Atheneum; Hartford CT Norfolk Museum; Norfolk, VA Museum of the City of NY; NYC Goshen Hall of Fame; Goshen, NY Hillandale Museum; Chadds Ford, PA Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum; NYC Smithsonian Institution; Washington, DC West Point Museum; West Point, NY MacArthur Memorial; Norfolk, VA Jewish Museum; NYC Metropolitan Opera; Lincoln Center, NYC Tazewell Museum; Tazewell, VA Intrepid Sea, Air, Space; New York, NY Smithsonian Museum (2); Washington, DC California Bank, Rockefeller Center; NYC American Bureau of Shipping; NYC U.S. Post Office; East Hartford, CT MacArthur Memorial, (6); Norfolk, VA Evyan Perfumes/Cheseborough; NYC Campbell Avenue Library; E. Hartford, CT Eastchester Town Hall; Eastchester, NY Portrait Gallery; Westport, CT Charles Mann Gallery; New York, NY Casa de Aquarella, Mexico City, Mexico Monserrat Gallery; New York, NY Larchmont Art Gallery; Larchmont, NY Jewish Center; New Haven, CT Alice Tully Hall; Lincoln Center, NYC Riverside Museum; New York, NY Westchester Art Society; White Plains, NY Byways Gallery; Sarasota, FL Byways Gallery; Bar Harbor, ME Gladstone Gallery; Woodstock, NY Bloomingdales; White Plains, NY Jalapa Festival, 1993 University of Delaware; Newark, DE University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, PA Trinity College; Hartford, CT Yale School of Fine Arts; New Haven, CT Sara Lawrence College; Bronxville, NY Bennington College; Bennington, VT University of Maine; Orono, ME Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center; NYC Lever Brothers; New York, NY Broome Street Gallery; New York, NY Artists Equity Gallery; New York, NY Mamaroneck Artists Guild; Mamaroneck, NY Hudson River Museum; Yonkers, NY Westchester Art Society; White Plains, NY Silvermine Guild; New Canaan, CT White Plains Library; White Plains, NY Larchmont Library; Larchmont, NY Radison Hotel; Mexico City, Mexico Hammond Museum; North Salem, NY Union Carbide; New York, NY Mitsikushi; Tokyo, Japan National Art Gallery; New York, NY Mari Gallery; Woodstock, NY American Center; Stockholm, Sweden Alliance Galleria; Copenhagen, Denmark Cape East Gallery; Provincetown, MA Pietrantoni Gallery; New York, NY Bridge Gallery; White Plains, NY Awards: PWA Mural Award, 1939 Westchester Society Merit Award Edwin Abby Mural Award, 1965 Grumbacher Awards, 1982, 1985 Westchester Council for the Arts, 1987 Lindner Memorial Award, 1992 Media: other, oil, acrylic, sculpture and mixed media Style: other, realistic, super-realistic, figurative & semi abstract Subjects: people, portraits and characters