American Art Collaborative

Painter, graphic artist; b. 1904; d. 2001; New York, N.Y. and Escondido, Calif. Harry Sternberg was a socially engaged New York artist who relocated to California in 1957. He grew up in New York surrounded by poverty, an experience that conditioned his philosophy of life and worldview. He taught at the Art Students League from 1933 to 1936, where his colleagues included George Grosz and Will Barnet. In 1935 he worked with Stuart Davis and others to organize the American Artists Congress against war and fascism. Much of his art philosophy involves social responsibility through universal content. His first gallery exhibition was at Weyhe Gallery, first review in the New Yorker, first museum show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is best known for his murals and for his prints. He is the author of Silk Screen Color Printing (1942).