JOHN O’NEIL
Birthplace: Kansas City, MO
(1915-2004)
Profession: American Painter, Educator, Writer
Studied: University of Oklahoma, B.F.A, 1936;
M.F.A. in Painting, 1939.
Colorado Springs Arts Center, with Boardman Robinson, Paul Barlin and Henry Varnum Poor; Taos School of Art, with Emil Bisttram; Studio Hinna, Rome, Italy, 1951-52.
Professor
University of Oklahoma, Norman OK 1939-1965,
Director of the School of Art 1951-1965;
Rice University, Houston, TX: Chairman of Art Department,
1965-1970;
Director, Sewall Art Gallery, 1971-1977; Professor Emeritus.
Additional: Teacher of art at a number of universities and colleges in Massachusetts, Hawaii, Michigan and New York; Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome.
Exhibited: World’s Fair New York, 1939; Carnegie Institute, 1941; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1939, 1941; Denver Art Museum, 1940; Directions in American Painting, Carnegie Institute; Abstract & Surrealist Art, Art Institute of Chicago; Contemporary American Painting, University of Illinois; Troisieme Salon International des Realites Nouvelles, Paris, France; M-59 Exhib., Copenhagen, Denmark; Louisiana Gallery, Houston, TX, 1970s.
Numerous exhibitions and awards: over 75 exhibitions between 1940 and 1993.
Description of style: “John O’Neil’s art has gone through a number of phases, encompassing various degrees of abstraction with surrealist overtones.
Early non-figurative work dates from 1939; however, since 1955 he has been exclusively occupied with problems of form and color in his painting.”
Introduction to Recent Paintings by John O’Neil; 1971 Exhibition Schedule: Moose Jaw Museum February 9 to 28; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, March 9 to 28. Manitoba: Brandon Allied Arts Center, April 12 to May 1.
Preferred media: oil, acrylic, pastel.
Museums (owning John O’Neil paintings)
Denver Art Museum (CO)
University of Michigan Museum of Art (MI)
Joslyn Museum, Omaha (NE)
Philbrook Art Center (Tulsa, OK)
Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art at University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK)
Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art (Shawnee, OK)
Rice University (Houston, TX)
Dallas Museum (TX)
Seattle Art Museum (WA)
Notes:
Published:
“Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State,”
Art & Architecture, 1957
“Thoughts on Light,” Kunst, 1963
“On Color,” Cimarron Review, 1972
From 1943 to 1946, served as topographer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in North Africa and Washington, D.C.
Recipient of numerous awards, grants and fellowships, O’Neil is listed in Who’s Who in American Art; Archives of American Art; and Personaggi Contemporaneii, Italy. Featured in Coming Home, American Paintings 1930-1950, The Schoen Collection, published in 2003 by the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia.
Copies of John O’Neil’s personal papers from 1945 to 1978 are preserved at the Smithsonian.
