Philip C. Curtis

Philip C. Curtis followed in his father’s footsteps and went to law school, but an art class led him to transfer to the School of Fine Arts at Yale University. The Works Progress Administration hired him as a mural supervisor in New York, then sent him to Phoenix, Arizona, to establish the state’s first art center. Curtis thrived on this job, creating traveling exhibitions and art classes that eventually led to the founding of the Phoenix Art Museum. He wanted his images to be puzzling and once, when asked whether people in his painting of an elevator were going up or down, replied, “How the hell should I know? For all I know, they could be stuck.” (Ruben, “Setting the Stage,” American Dreamer: The Art of Philip C. Curtis, 1999)