Miriam Ibling

Miriam Ibling (February 17, 1895–November 9, 1985) was an American muralist who worked on art projects for the New Deal's Section of Painting and Sculpture creating public art in Minnesota. Her lithograph Sheep Resting is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Miriam Ibling
Born
Anne Miriam Christine Iblings

(1895-02-17)February 17, 1895
Parkersburg, Butler County, Iowa
DiedNovember 9, 1985(1985-11-09) (aged 90)
Monterey, Monterey County, California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesMarian Ebling
Occupationartist, muralist
Years active1935-1942
Known formurals

Early life

Anne Miriam Christine Iblings was born on February 17, 1895 in Parkersburg, Butler County, Iowa to Anna (née Paul) and Christopher Iblings.[1][2] After graduating from Sioux Falls Baptist College, Ibling attended the Minneapolis School of Art, studying three years under Cameron Booth.[2][3] She then studied for a year at the University of Minnesota before founding with other students, the Art League of Minneapolis.[3]

Career

From 1935, Ibling was painting murals in and around Minneapolis for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), in addition to working as an art teacher, graphic designer and painter.[4] She created such works as a 1935 lithograph, Sheep Resting, which is currently in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.;[5] an outdoor scene from 1936 which was featured on a wall in the basement of the Central High School;[6][7] and a mural painted in fresco-secco, Youth and the Modern World in the Stillwater High School. The work, in the school's auditorium, symbolizes both community growth and the advances made in arts and sciences.[8] In the Lymanhurst Hospital playroom she created a mural called Alice in Wonderland in 1937.[Notes 1] In 1938, she painted a mural, Mother Goose in the historic school building, now known as Merrill Hall, at the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children.[4]

Ibling taught classes at the State Reformatory for Women in the 1940s, and an exhibition of their work was shown in March and April, 1940.[16] Her 1941 design, Orchestra, Attending the Opera, and Country Band Concert for Galtier Elementary School, in St. Paul, combined three studies illustrating American music.[17][18] These were done as silk screens and applied to the wall after completion. The draft sketches for the stylized rhythmic figures for the three sections, "Orchestra", "Attending the Opera" and "Country Band Concert" are currently held in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.[19][20][21] In 1943, Ibling created murals with Charles Morgan for the Minneapolis Service Men's Center,[22] which was the year that the federal artist's program ended.[4]

After her WPA period, Ibling taught until 1946 at Cherry Lawn School in Darien, Connecticut,[23] before relocating to California in the early 1950s.[24]

Death and legacy

Ibling died on November 9, 1985 in Monterey, Monterey County, California.[25]

Notes
  1. Though the Federal Writer's Project and O'Sullivan call this painting Mother Goose,[9][10] McCarney's project inventory calls it Alice in Wonderland,[11] as does "American Paintings and Sculpture, which states "She also painted scenes from Alice in Wonderland for the Children's Hospital (later known as the Sister Kenney Memorial Hospital for Children)".[3] The Minnesota Historical Society identifies the same painting with both names.[12][13] Traditional characters in Mother Goose, "Baa Baa Black Sheep", "Jack and Jill", "Little Bo Peep", "Mary Had a Little Lamb", "The Old Woman and the Shoe", "Three Blind Mice" and others,[14] are not in the painting. Traditional Alice characters, "Humpty Dumpty", the "Mad Hatter", the "March Hare", the "Red Knight and "White Knight", "Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee"[15] point to the painting being Alice in Wonderland.

References

Citations
  1. State Historical Society of Iowa 1943.
  2. Johnson 1976, p. 22.
  3. "American Paintings and Sculpture" 1986, p. 213.
  4. National Register of Historic Places 2012, p. 24.
  5. McCarney 2004, p. 6.
  6. Minnesota State Historical Society (a) 2016.
  7. Federal Writers' Project 2013, p. 433.
  8. Federal Writers' Project 2013, p. 230.
  9. O'Sullivan 1993, p. 190.
  10. McCarney 2004, p. 7.
  11. Minnesota State Historical Society (b) 2016.
  12. Minnesota State Historical Society (c) 2016.
  13. Gustafson 2014, p. 3.
  14. Carroll 2009.
  15. Remember When 2015, p. 3.
  16. O'Sullivan 1993, p. 188.
  17. Crump 2009, p. 42.
  18. Minnesota State Historical Society (d) 2016.
  19. Minnesota State Historical Society (e) 2016.
  20. Minnesota State Historical Society (f) 2016.
  21. McCarney 2004, p. 8.
  22. Cherry Lawn School 2007.
  23. The Oakland Tribune 1951, p. 43.
  24. Department of Public Health Services 1985.

Bibliography
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