Ralston Crawford
| Ralston Crawford | |
|---|---|
Maitland Bridge -2, 1938, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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| Born | September 5, 1906 |
| Died | April 27, 1978 (aged 71) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
Otis Art Institute. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The Barnes Foundation |
| Known for | Painting, Photography |
Ralston Crawford (1906–1978) was an American abstract painter, lithographer, and photographer.
He was born on September 5, 1906, in Canada, at St. Catharines, Ontario, and spent his childhood in Buffalo, New York. He studied art beginning in 1927 in California at the Otis Art Institute. After working at the Walt Disney Studio, he returned to the eastern U.S. for further study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and at the Barnes Foundation, where he was exposed to the art of Picasso and Matisse. In 1934, he had his first one-man showing at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He was also one of the Independents.
Crawford was best known for his abstract representations of urban life and industry. His early work placed him with Precisionist artists like Niles Spencer and Charles Sheeler. Here, the focus was on realistic, sharp portrayals of factories, bridges, and shipyards. Later work was geometrically abstract. In Spain, he observed bullfighting, and the religious procession during Holy Week in Seville. In New Orleans, he painted and photographed cemeteries and jazz musicians (requiring a permit to visit bars normally restricted to blacks).Fortune Magazine sent Crawford to the Bikini Atoll in 1946 to record a nuclear weapons test.
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