Pele de Lappe

Phyllis "Pele" Murdock de Lappe (1916–2007)[1][2] was an American artist, known for her social realist paintings, prints, and drawings. She also worked as a journalist, newspaper editor, illustrator, and political cartoonist. de Lappe had been a resident for many years in Berkeley, California and later, Petaluma, California.

Pele de Lappe
Pele de Lappe
Self-Portrait, 1938
Born
Phyllis deLappe

(1916-05-04)May 4, 1916
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedOctober 1, 2007(2007-10-01) (aged 91)
Petaluma, California, U.S.
Other namesPele deLappe, Phyllis Murdock, Phyllis Edises, Pele Edises
EducationSan Francisco Art Institute,
Art Students League of New York
Years active1930–2007
Known forPaintings, Prints, Political Cartoons
MovementCalifornia Labor School,
Communist Party USA
Spouse(s)Bert Edises (1934–1949),
Steve Murdock (1953–1969)
PartnerByron Randall (c.1990s–1999)
Children2

Early life and education

She was born as Phyllis deLappe on May 4, 1916 in San Francisco, California and was the fourth-generation of her family born in San Franciscan.[3][2] Her father, Wes deLappe was a commercial artist and her mother was Dorothy Sheldon deLappe.[4][5][6]

She started her career as an artist at age 14, studying art at California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute) under Arnold Blanch.[2][7] Two years later she continued education at Art Students League of New York, working with artists Edward Lansing, Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan and Charles Locke.[3][4][7] While in New York, she befriended artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in the 1930s.[8] This was during Rivera's Rockefeller Center mural, Man at the Crossroads and de Lappe modeled and assisted on the mural.[8]

Career

By 1934, she returned to San Francisco, joined the Communist party and became active in the labor movement.[5] She taught figure drawing at the California Labor School during the 1940s.[5] She also worked in the 1940s as an editor and political cartoonist for The People's World, a labor movement newspaper.[7] She additionally worked as an illustrator for other newspapers, including: Daily Worker, The New Masses, L'Unita Operaia, West Oakland Beacon, and the San Francisco Chronicle.[7]

In 1952, de Lappe alongside several artists from the California Labor School went on and founded the Graphic Arts Workshop (GAW), a cooperative printmaking studio in San Francisco.[5][7][9]

In 1999, she published her autobiography, Pele: A Passionate Journey through Art and the Red Press.[6][10]

Her artwork is in many public collections, including: National Gallery of Art,[11] the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery,[12][13] Fine Art Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF),[1] Syracuse University, and the Library of Congress.[14][7]

Personal life

In 1934, she married lawyer, Bertram "Bert" Edises and together they had two children. The couple divorced in 1949.[5] She was married from 1953 until 1969 to Steve Murdock, a writer for People's World the labor movement newspaper.[5]

She moved to Petaluma in the 1990 to be closer to her friend and longtime partner, artist Byron Randall and this romance lasted until his death in 1999.[6][15]

References
  1. "Pele de Lappe". FAMSF Search the Collections. 2018-09-21. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  2. Scherr, Judith (October 16, 2007). "Pele deLappe, Artist and Activist, Remembered—1916-2007". The Berkeley Daily Planet. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  3. "Artist Biography for Phyllis (Pele) De Lappe". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  4. Curiel, Jonathan (2007-10-04). "Pele deLappe – artist, journalist, rights activist dead at 91". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  5. "Pele deLappe Papers". oac.cdlib.org. Online Archive of California, California Digital Library. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  6. Giles, Gretchen (2002-09-12). "Pele deLappe". Metroactive Arts. North Bay Bohemian. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  7. "Pele de Lappe". The Graphic Arts Workshop. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  8. "Extraordinary California Women Artists Working from 1860 to 1960". Hyperallergic. 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
  9. Hamlin, Jesse (2002-11-25). "The Graphic Arts Workshop presses forward / S.F. artists group works for social justice". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  10. Wasp, Jean (2002). "News Center: "A Passionate Journey: The Works of Pele deLappe" Kicks Off the University Library Fall Programs". Sonoma State University (SSU) News Center. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  11. "Phyllis (Pele) De Lappe". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  12. "Self-Portrait (On Being Female)". npg.si.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  13. "Pele de Lappe Self-Portrait". npg.si.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  14. "Collection: The Jelly-Roll blues by Pele DeLappe (1939)". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  15. "Byron Randall". SFGate. 1999-08-19. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
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