Walter Quirt (1902-1968). Cubist abstract composition painting in oil and casein on canvas,1949-50. Signed along the lower right. Further signed, dated, and inscribed “oil-casein” and “30 x 36” along the verso. Walter Quirt was born in Iron River, Michigan in 1902. After high school, Quirt moved to Wisconsin and studied at the Layton School of Art from 1921 until 1923. He continued his artistic studies at the McDowell Colony in New Hampshire in 1928. He moved to New York City and was a part of the new avant garde art movements of New York. He painted heavily surrealist pictures and was also known for his murals that he painted for the Works Project Administration.

Quirt was an incredibly socially aware artist that painted realistic scenes of social injustices. He was involved in radical artists groups and identified with socialist causes. Water Quirt took a teaching job at the University of Minnesota from 1956-1968 and lived the rest of his life in Minneapolis. He had a successful retrospective of his work in 1960 at the American Federation of Arts. He also exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

[Unframed] height: 30 in x width: 36 in.
[Framed] height: 39 3/4 in x width: 45 3/4 in.