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HARRY CARMEAN

Harry Carmean (born Anthony, Kansas 1922)

After serving in WW2 Harry Carmean began pursuing his interest in art at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in France and then in the late 1940's at Art Center College of Design. While at Art Center he met California hard edge artist Lorser Feitelson and became involved with a circle of Los Angeles artists that included Helen Lundeburg, Frederick Hammersley, Stanton MacDonald Wright and others. By the 1950's many of these artist were working in the hard edge abstract style of the time, but Carmean remained a purely figurative artist. He began teaching figure drawing and painting at Art Center College of Design in 1952 and continued to teach thousands of students for the next 43 years, retiring in 1996. Carmean is primarily known for his bold, sensual and masterful paintings of nudes and interior scenes. His paintings are characterized by sophisticated compositions in which he deals with concepts used by past masters. Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionistic and Mannerist tendencies can all be seen in his work to varying degrees. In the 1960's, Carmean completed a series of paintings depicting the theme of the family. These were done in a simple manner with muted colors, and with a composition that echoed the early Renaissance. It was at this time that Carmean came into his own as a painter and developed his distinctive style of painting with complex compositions. During the late sixties and early seventies Carmean was featured four times on Lorser Feitelson's award winning television show "Feitelson on Art" on KNBC in Los Angeles. His life drawing class was also included in the National Geographic special on the human body. In the 1970's the book Carmean was published along with another book on his drawings. In the late eighties his painting style shifted and a series of paintings with a new subject matter was begun. He painted scenes from the circus and the dance world, depicting harlequins, acrobats and dancers which were reminiscent of his early days as a professional singer. In this new series the compositions became more involved and with more mannerist elements, which set precedents in terms of classical composition. In 1996 he retired from Art Center and moved to Santa Barbara where he continues to draw and paint. He is currently married to artist Miriam Slater.

References: American Artist Magazine, 1975 " Art News, 1974 Art International, 1971 Carmean, June Harwood, 1975 The Drawings of Harry Carmean, Jacobson, 1975 "The Incredible Human Machine" National Geographic Society, 1975 Feitelson on Art, KNBC, 1964-5

Links: harrycarmean.com Screamonline.com* harrycarmean.com miriamslater.com Artcenter.com Sulllivangoss.com* Lorserfeitelson,com<