Ernest Fiene
Mr. Schiff served as Mr. Fiene's Class Monitor 1963-1965 at the Art Students League of New York

Ernest Fiene was born in 1894. He gained his academic training at numerous art schools in New York City, including the National Academy of Design (1914 - 1918), the Beaux Arts Institute (1916-1918), and The Art Students League in 1923. Six years later, Fiene left for a tour of Europe. While he was in Paris, he attended L'Academie de La Grand Chaumiere. After returning from France, Fiene began teaching at the Westchester County Center. In 1932 he returned to Europe and headed to Florence, Italy were he would learned the art of fresco painting.

Upon returning to the U.S. Fiene was awarded a post office mural commission titled Paul Revere as an Industrialist in Cantor, Massachusetts. One year later, in 1937, the artist was commissioned to do a mural in Washington D.C.

Fiene taught art at a number of school around the country, including the Colorado Springs Fine Arts (1935) Center and the Cooper Union Institute in New York (1938-1939). He was a member of the Art Students League from 1938-1964 and became a supervising faculty member at Famous Artists School in Westport, Connecticut.

COMMISSIONS

A Series of paintings for the United States Governments

Portraits for Columbia University, New York, NY

Paintings of Missouri for Scruggs, Vandervoort, and Barney

Paintings of Pennsylvania for Gimbels of Philadelphia

Mural Harmony and Achievement

Mural Victory of Light Over Darkness

Murals for International Ladies Garment Workers Union, New York, 1950

Ohio University, Athens, OH

The New York Hospital, New York, NY

Two Murals for Abraham Lincoln High School, New York, NY

COLLECTIONS

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA

Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland, OH

Encyclopaedia Brittannica Collection

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Los Angles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

National Academy of Design, New York, NY

New York Public Library, New York, NY

Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA

Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Tel Aviv Museum, Israel

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Yale University, New Haven, CN

 

AWARDS

1932 Guggenheim Fellowship

1937 Norman Waite Harris Prize, Chicago Art Institute

1938 W.A. Clarke Prize, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1938 Honorable Mention, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

1940 Ada S. Garrett Prize, Chicago Art Institute

1940 Pennell Purchase Prize, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

1944 First Pennell Award, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

MEMBERSHIPS

Artists Equity Association, New York Chapter, Honorary President

Arts Student League of New York

International Institute of Arts and Letters, Lindau, Bodensee, Germany

National Academy of Design

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