Harold Emerson Haydon
American, 1909-1994
Untitled (Abstraction)
Oil on masonite
Signed, titled, and dated 1950 lower right. Waves of impasto and sgraffito on a red ground. Mounted in shadowbox-style ebonized frame, Richard Norton Gallery, Chicago label to verso. Contains certificate of appraisal.

Haydon?s works were included in numerous exhibitions held at the Art Institute of Chicago, such as the ?Annual Students Exhibition of the Art Institute School? (1933); the ?Annual Exhibition of Artists of Chicago and Vicinity? (1937, 1938, 1944, 1945, 1949, 1950 and 1958); the ?Annual Exhibition of American Painting? (1947); the ?Annual Exhibition of the Society for Contemporary American Art? (1947 and 1950); and the ?Biennial of Prints, Drawings and Water Colors by Illinois Artists? (1964). His works were also featured in the exhibition ?Options? shown at the Milwaukee Art Center and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1968).

In 1982, a 50 year retrospective of Haydon?s works was shown at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Architecture, Art and Urban Planning Gallery.

Many of his murals, mosaics, wool ark curtains and stained glass creations are in churches, synagogues and schools in the Chicago area. One of his biggest and most important public space creations, a 16' x 44' mural painted in 1934, is still in its original location in the Pickering College gymnasium, Newmarket, Ontario.

Haydon was made a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society in his junior year at the University of Chicago (1929). His other honors include the Big Ten Conference Medal for Excellence in Athletics and Scholarship (1930); and the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the University of Chicago (1945).

Haydon was instrumental in commissioning the bronze titled ?Nuclear Energy? by Henry Moore to mark the location (now on the National Register of Historic Places) at the University of Chicago campus (originally under the west stands of Stagg Field) of the world?s ?First Self-Sustaining Nuclear Reaction? on December 2, 1942. Haydon and Moore presided over the sculpture?s unveiling on December 2, 1967.

Attached below is a brief edited excerpt from Haydon?s biography courtesy of the Harold Haydon website:

?He came to Chicago with his family in 1917, married Virginia Elenore Sherwood (1912 ? 1986) in 1937 and was naturalized a U.S. citizen in 1941. Hal was educated primarily in Chicago. First in public school, then to the University of Chicago Laboratory High School. From there to the undergraduate program at the University of Chicago where he earned a Ph.B [Bachelor of Philosophy] in 1930 and then an M.A. [Master of Arts] in Philosophy in 1931. While continuing with post graduate study in aesthetics, he also took art courses [c.1932 ? 1933] at the School of the Art Institute [of Chicago, under Edmund Giesbert, Frederick Poole, Louis Ritman, Lloyd Cowan, David McCosh and Helen Gardner]. His first job was as artist-in-residence at Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario from 1933-34. Returning to Chicago, he focused his career on working and teaching in the Chicago area. First he taught arts and crafts at George Williams College from 1934-44, and then began teaching art at the University of Chicago from 1944-75, becoming Professor Emeritus of Art in 1975. He was also Director of the Midway Studios at the University of Chicago from 1962-75.

Hal took over as art critic for the Chicago Sun Times from 1963 ? 1985. During this period he was also teaching mural design, 1975 ? 1981, at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and was an Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts, 1975 ? 1982, at Indiana University, Northwest Campus, in Gary. Primarily a painter, Hal also designed and constructed murals in glass mosaics and ceramic tile, designed stained glass windows, created metal and plastic mobiles, and made polyplane [sic] paintings on glass. He began exhibiting paintings in the U.S. and Canada in 1933 and was active in artists organizations starting in 1945. Hal was past president of the Artist League of the Midwest, the Chicago chapter of Artists Equity Association* [1950 ? 1952 and 1955 ? 1957], and was also an honorary life [member] of the Artists Guild of Chicago and the Alumni Association of the school of the Art Institute. Author of "Great Art Treasures in America's Smaller Museums," 1967, and numerous articles, he was also an illustrator.?

Footnote:
(1) Quote source: Harold Haydon website.

Sources:
Henry Moore in America: Art, Business and the Special Relationship (2014), by Pauline Rose; I.B. Tauris, New York

Picturing the Land: Narrating Territories in Canadian Landscape Art, 1500 ? 1950 (2011), by Marylin J. McKay; McGill-Queen's University Press

The Social and the Real: Political Art of the 1930s in the Western Hemisphere (2006), edited by Alejandro Anreus, Diana L. Linden, Jonathan Weinberg; Pennsylvania State University Press

A Good Life in a World Made Good: Albert Eustace Haydon, 1880 ? 1975 (2006), by W. Creighton Peden; P. Lang, New York

Biographical Index of Artists in Canada (2003), by Evelyn de Rostaing McMann (see askART Publications)

A National Soul: Canadian Mural Painting, 1860s ? 1930s (2002), by Marylin Jean McKay (see askART Publications)

Who Was Who in American Art, 1564 ? 1975 (1999), by Peter Hastings Falk (see askART Publications)

Canadian Who?s Who ? 1991 (1991), edited by Kieran Simpson (see askART Publications)

Dictionary of American Sculptors: 18th Century to the Present (1984), edited by Glenn B. Opitz; Apollo, Poughkeepsie, New York

The Artist as Thinker: From Shakespeare to Joyce (1983), by George Anastaplo; Swallow Press, Chicago

Canadian Who?s Who ? 1983 (1983), edited by Kieran Simpson; University of Toronto Press

Who's Who in American Art 15th Edition (1982), by Jaques Cattell Press (see askART Publications)

Who's Who in America: With World Notables, Volume 35, 1968 ? 1969 (1968), preface by Jackson Martindell, compiled by multiple editors; Marquis Who's Who, Chicago, Ill.

Great Art Treasures in America's Smaller Museums (1967), by Harold Haydon; Putnam, New York

Canadian Heritage Information Network*

Harold Haydon website

Art Institute of Chicago

University of Chicago

Obituary - The University of Chicago Chronicle Feb. 3, 1994 Vol. 13, No. 11

National Register of Historic Places

Corbett vs. Dempsey website

Provenance: Purchased by Kenneth and Phyllis Langsdorf in 2017 through the Richard Norton Gallery in Chicago, IL.
Panel: 5 3/4 x 8 in. (14.61 x 20.32 cm.), frame: 9 1/4 x 11 in. (23.50 x 27.94 cm.)