Keith Allen Crown

Keith Crown (1918- )
"Messiah Poster "
Serigraph, 1940.
LFAC #779

Biography

Keith Crown was born May 27, 1918, in Keokuk, Iowa. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1936-1940, receiving his BFA in 1946. During World War II, he was an Infantry Artist and Staff Sergeant as well as a field correspondent for Yank magazine. He was awarded a Bronze Star during the War. Crown started out at Camp Roberts in California, was transferred to a camp in Washington, and then deployed to Hawaii. His war service was primarily spent in the Pacific theater serving in the 161st Regiment, 25th Division. He married Helen Elaine Talle in 1945. He was later married to Patricia Dahlman in 1966.

Between 1940 and 1941, Crown was an instructor of art at Luther College before being inducted into the Army. It was during this time that he created the Messiah Poster in the Fine Arts Collection. Crown later recalled that he created 25 silkscreen posters to advertise the event in 1940. Crown donated the poster to the College in 1989, immediately before the 50th anniversary of the Messiah performances.

In 1946, Crown joined the faculty at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles as an instructor of art. In 1947, he had his first one-man show at the M.H. deYoung Museum in San Francisco. He became interested in pre-Columbian art after a trip to Mexico in 1951, acquiring a fine collection. He was awarded a sabbatical leave in 1956 when he visited Taos, New Mexico, for four months. A second sabbatical leave occurred in 1964 when he spent time as a Visiting Professor of Painting at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Through an act of vandalism in 1965, Crown lost over one hundred paintings. He continued working, becoming a Visiting Professor of Painting at the University of Calgary at Alberta, Canada, during the summer months. The pattern of doing visiting professorships during summers continued with positions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Portland State University, the University of Illinois and the University of Missouri, Columbia. Crown also gave numerous lecture-demonstrations and workshops and was an artist in residence at several colleges including Bethany College in Lindsborg, KS and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Crown spent considerable time painting and writing while working in Taos, New Mexico. In 1975, he built a house in Talpa, near Taos. Although he continued traveling widely, he stayed in Taos part of each year. Retiring in 1983 from USC as a Professor Emeritus of Art, he moved to Columbia, Missouri, where he continued to produce art. A retrospective exhibit of his art was held to celebrate his 90th birthday in 2008 at the Perlow-Stevens Gallery at the University of Missouri.

The list of one-man exhibitions and invitational exhibitions in which Crown showed his art is extensive. His works are in many public and private collections. He won innumerable prizes and awards including purchase awards. He was president of the National Watercolor Society in 1959 and a member of the founding board of directors of the Los Angeles chapter of Artist’s Equity. He served on many juries for art exhibitions and his paintings illustrate numerous books. In 2003, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Watercolor Society USA Honor Society.

Crown preferred to paint his watercolors outdoors rather than in a studio. Although he experimented with acrylics, oils and other mediums, he concentrated on watercolors throughout his life. He especially enjoyed painting around Taos, New Mexico, in desert terrain. Crown used various means to apply his paint which is often colorful, including brushes, razor knives, sponges, a water can, a spray bottle, string and nails. He also used an air-brush which he described as providing a “distinguished character” to his paintings. He typically sketched before beginning a painting. Former students have commented that he was known for his productivity, starting and finishing a painting the same day. He has signed different sides of his paintings so they could be hung in different ways.

During Crown’s marriage to Helen Elaine Talle, they collected pre-Columbian art from Mexico. It was given to Luther College in her memory by her daughters, Dr. Patricia Crown, Katherine Crown Webster, and Haine Talle Crown in 1988.

Ref: “December 7, 1941: America, Winneshiek Go to War!” Decorah Public Opinion, 779 (December 3, 1991); Reich, Sheldon. Keith Crown: Watercolors. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1986; “Keith Crown, A Watercolorist.” The Missourian. May 23, 2008. columbiamissoourian.com Who’s Who in American Art. New York: R.R. Bowker, various dates; keithcrownpaintings.com

Updated 03/11/2009