Vernon Carroll Porter
Encyclopedia
Vernon Carroll Porter, artist, was born in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

 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
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. 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, New York, 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 renowned sculptor Chester Beach
Chester Beach
Chester A. Beach was an American sculptor who was known for his busts and medallic art.-Early life:Beach was born in San Francisco, California. He studied initially at the California School of Mechanical Arts and worked as a jewelry designer immediately afterward, while continuing his art studies...



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.

External links

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://www.washingtonsquareoutdoorartexhibit.org/
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