Leon Goldin

American, (1923–2009)
Leon Goldin was born in 1923 in Chicago, where he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1952, he won the Fulbright Scholarship in Painting and three years later the prestigious Prix de Rome, which brought him to the American Academy in Rome. In Europe, he motorcycled through Italy and France with his wife Meta visiting cathedrals and remote villages in search of medieval and renaissance treasures, finding a particular connection in the frescoes of Piero Della Francesca, a lifelong love and influence In New York, he showed at the Kraushaar Galleries, winning numerous fellowships for his tough, postmodern landscapes and cityscapes, including an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Guggenheim Fellowship in Painting and a Ford Foundation Purchase Prize. His work is represented by The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, The National Academy of Design in New York, The Oakland Art Museum, The University of Southern California as well as many other museums and numerous public and private collections. Leon Goldin suffered from Parkinsons during the last ten years of his life. Miraculously, his hand shook less when it had a paintbrush in it, and he continued to work until the last few months of his life, moving back and forth on his paintspattered walker to produce some of his best work. He passed away peacefully in 2009 with the simple comforting words, "Everybody dies."