Artist

Roy Moyer

born Allentown, PA 1921-died New York City 2007
Born
Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States
Died
New York, New York, United States
Active in
  • Salonika, Greece
Biography

Groomed from childhood for a life as a concert pianist, Roy Moyer is essentially self-taught as a visual artist. He received undergraduate and graduate academic degrees from Columbia University and, following military service during World War II, studied at the University of Oslo. From 1947 until 1950 Moyer lived in Salonica, Greece, where his first exhibition was held. Moyer served as director of the American Federation of Arts from 1963 until 1972, and is currently chief of art and design for UNICEF. A thematic traditionalist, Moyer paints still lifes, landscapes, and figures with a reductive sense of form, and emphasizes the rhythmic contours rather than details of his subjects. If Moyer's work has a visual precedent, it is the expressive use of line and color characteristic of Edvard Munch, although Moyer seldom seeks the psychological intensity found in the Norwegian expressionist's work. The glowing hues of Moyer's recent paintings create illusions of space through color alone.

Virginia M. Mecklenburg Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1987)

Works by this artist (1036 items)

William H. Johnson, Young Pastry Cook, ca. 1928-1930, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.693
Young Pastry Cook
Dateca. 1928-1930
oil on canvas
On view
William H. Johnson, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1935-1938, oil on burlap, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.814
Portrait of a Man
Dateca. 1935-1938
oil on burlap
On view
William H. Johnson, Breakdown with Flat Tire, ca. 1940-1941, oil on plywood, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.587
Breakdown with Flat Tire
Dateca. 1940-1941
oil on plywood
On view
William H. Johnson, For India and China, ca. 1944-1945, oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.662
For India and China
Dateca. 1944-1945
oil on paperboard
On view