Darrel Austin

Darrel Austin

Austin, Darrel

Raymond 1907

Portland

New Fairfield 1994

painter

Northwest artist

Oregon artist

Darrel Austin was two years old when his family moved to Portland. In 1927 he joined Kleeb Art Service, beginning his career as a commercial artist. During this time he won the Chamber of Commerce prize for best poster. While attending classes at Emil Jacques's studio he met Charles Heaney and C.S. Price, who greatly influenced his work. He assisted Jacques with a mural commission for St. Mary’s Cathedral of Portland, following him to South Bend, Indiana to complete the job.

Austin married artist Margot Helser in 1933. He painted a mural for the University of Oregon Medical School in 1936 entitled The Evolution of Medical Education, done in four six-by-eight foot panels, representing ignorance, doubt, revolt, and triumph. They were painted in the style of Mexican murals--bold and daring--and were controversial from the start. The murals hung for sixteen years, never liked or appreciated. During a 1952 remodeling they were removed from the walls and have since disappeared. It appears that Austin was ahead of his time for the public taste. In 1976 the Smithsonian Institution requested permission to include the murals in the National Collection of Fine Arts. A search was mounted but the murals were never found. As a WPA artist he painted a mural entitled Fish Story for the Tongue Point Naval Station near Astoria. In 1937 Austin produced eight paintings for the WPA; among them are Dishwashers, Musicians, Woodcutters, and The Skier, which can be found at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood.

The Austins moved to Los Angeles, where his 1938 one-person show at the Putzel Gallery was extremely successful. His subjects were women and girls in green orchards. One critic compared his rhythmic riots of color to Van Gogh. His work had a unique, sensitive imagery and a sense of mysticism about it. This marked the beginning of his highly personal style of painting an introverted observation of images created in his soul. His 1940 one-person show in New York brought great critical and popular acclaim. He was featured in art publications as well as popular magazines. Life, Time, Esquire, and Fortune carried stories on this artist who had captured the popular imagination.

Artist biography reproduced with permission from the authors, Oregon Painters: the First Hundred Years (1859-1959), Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit.

Male

Associate of: Charles Heaney (American, 1897-1981)

Associate of: C.S. Price (American, 1874-1950)