Vernon Carroll Porter

Vernon Carroll Porter, artist, was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1896. He studied at the Art Students League, Grand Central School Academy, the Mechanics Institute and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and was known for his surreal landscape oil paintings.

As chairman of the Artists Aid Committee, Mr. Porter started the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit in 1931, with the objective of helping artists survive the Great Depression. The first exhibit, which lasted nine days, was limited to 10 artists who lived in New York. Most of the group lived below 14th Street with the remainder residing in Brooklyn. The exhibit has since been reorganized into a nonprofit corporation for stimulating, promoting and preserving contemporary American art. The Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, in the heart of Greenwich Village, has become a major annual tourist attraction while it continues to provide an exhibit area for upcoming new artists to meet with gallery owners, critics and collectors.

From 1938 to 1947, Vernon Porter was Director of the Riverside Museum.

Vernon was married to Beata Beach, painter, designer, illustrator, and etcher. She was a daughter of sculptor Chester Beach.

Mr. Porter was living in Putnam Valley, New York when he suffered a stroke and died in Peekskill Community Hospital, Peekskill, New York, August 31, 1982. His wife, Beata Porter, died in August 2007.

Time Magazine, June 1, 1932, Art: Colonel's Lady (includes report of the first outdoor exhibit in Washington Square) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,743805-2,00.html

The New Yorker, June 1, 1935, p. 12 - Francis S. Wickware, Harold Ross, The Talk of the Town, "Art In The Open.," http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1935/06/01/1935_06_01_012_TNY_CARDS_000159493#ixzz0cEz8xCTm

Homepage of the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, Inc. http://web.archive.org/web/20100223082617/http://www.washingtonsquareoutdoorartexhibit.org:80/

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