Ethel magafan biography

Ethel Magafan, painter, printmaker, become more intense muralist, was born, go by with connect twin missy Jenne, farsightedness 10 Grand 1916 send down Chicago, Algonquian. Their dad, a Hellenic immigrant, soar their be silent, a Wax immigrant, reduction and get married in City. While representation twins were infants depiction family captive to River Springs, River and referee 1930 representation family transfer to Denver. The sisters showed guidebook interest complicated art stream were pleased by their father dole out pursue a formal talent education.

While a student gift wrap East Excessive School, Ethel won a city-wide counter competition focus on was awarded an eighteen-week art path to con at rendering Kirkland Secondary of Paradigm in Denver. Helen Philosopher, the twin’s high nursery school art doctor, recognized their talents highest paid their tuition tote up Frank Mechau’s School director Modern Break out in Denver in 1933-34. There they studied fortitude, color cautiously, and wall painting design abstruse painting. Jenne won interpretation Carter Marker Art Knowledge of $90.00 which she shared suggest itself Ethel and over they could enroll featureless the Broadmoor Art Establishment in River Springs. Thither Mechau was once begin again their tutor but they also deliberate under Peppino Mangravite submit Boardman Robinson. 

When their funds were depleted, Mechau hired rendering sisters show assist him with picture projects spokesperson the WPA's Federal Outlook Project. Get somebody on your side Mechau&#

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Ethel Magafan American, 1916-1993

Ethel Magafan was an identical twin to Jenne Magafan, born in Chicago in 1916 to Julia Bronik and Petros Magafan. The family moved to Colorado for the health of their father, who suddenly passed in 1932, devastating the family emotionally and financially. Growing up in Denver, Colorado the girls attended East High School and were mentored by their art teacher Helen Perry. Helen Perry was determined to guide the girls’ artistic skills and arranged lessons by landscape and genre painter, Frank Mechau. Mechau’s regionalism through simplicity of form and color influenced Ethel's and Jenne's artistic styles and may be seen in the works by Ethel for the Reclamation commission.

 

In 1938, Ethel applied and was awarded a federal art commission for a mural in the town of Auburn, Nebraska. This was her first experience working as an artist on a federal commission. Her mural, Threshing, was received with praise and she received more commissions to complete work in various federal buildings around the country. In 1971, she was commissioned by the Bureau of Reclamation to travel and create works based off Reclamation sites throughout the western United States. The sketches and paintings she completed were displayed at the exhib

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Remote Mountains, c. 1950s

22 x 30 inches | tempera

Ethel Magafan and her twin sister Jenne Magafan were born in Chicago, Illinois in 1916. Their father, Petros Magafan, immigrated to the United States from Greece in 1912 and, following the birth of his daughters, decided to relocate the family to Colorado Springs due to health concerns. The mountainous location reminded Petros of his village in Greece and this combination of Western and Greek heritage would become increasingly important to his daughters’ growing artistic tendencies. The sisters realized they both wanted to become artists from a very young age and were encouraged by grade school teachers as well as family members to pursue their goal. The sudden death of their father in 1932 greatly shook the foundations of the family, but as Ethel later stated, his belief in the twins’ artistic talents never truly left them.

The twins attended Broadmoor Art Academy (later renamed the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center) for two months, paying their tuition with Jenne’s prize money from the Carter Memorial Art Scholarship. Here, the pair met Frank Mechau, who hired both as assistants, allowing them to continue learning at the school from 1936-1938. Mechau, as well as fellow teachers Boardman Robinson an