Artist

Justin McCarthy

born Hazleton, PA 1891-died Tuscon, AZ 1977
Media - McCarthy_Justin.jpg - 144034
Courtsey Estate of Leonard J. Ross and Grey Carter-Objects of Art
Born
Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States
Died
Tucson, Arizona, United States
Active in
  • Weatherly, Pennsylvania, United States
Biography

Justin McCarthy painted a wide range of popular imagery, with a preference for fashion models, movie stars, sports heroes, and other famous people, mostly found in newspapers and magazines. He began to paint after suffering a nervous breakdown when he failed to complete a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania. He supported himself by growing and selling vegetables and doing odd jobs.

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990)

Works by this artist (2 items)

Jenny Holzer, For SAAM, 2007, electronic LED array with white diodes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2008.3, © 2007, Jenny Holzer/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
For SAAM
Date2007
electronic LED array with white diodes
On view

Related Books

Cover for the catalogue "We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection"
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and her son Douglas O. Robson, and will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum July 1, 2022 through March 26, 2023.