GENERAL DESCRIPTION
A native to the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Michael G. Owen, graduated from Highland Park High School and then trained at the Dallas Art Institute where his teachers included Olin Travis and Jerry Bywaters. In the 1930s, Owen served as a painter for the Civilian Conservation Corps (at Garner State Park in Uvalde, TX), assisted in the sculptures for the Texas Centennial Esplanade of State, sailed the Caribbean as a deckhand, and was a designer at Southern Potteries in Dallas.
His most famous work, a portrait of the black folksinger Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, was modeled in clay during a single sitting in Leadbelly's New York City apartment, where the old musician strummed the guitar and sang the songs that had made him famous in the South. The 1943 sculpture is Owen's best-known work, and his later career received minimal acclaim. By 1950, he moved to the Pacific Northwest to live with his family. After a severe illness caused muscular and vision deterioration, Owen eventually died without ever having attended the recognition that much of his early Texas work deserves.
Adapted from
- William Keyse Rudolph, DMA Label copy (1950.91), May 2006.
- Rick Stewart, Lone Star Regionalism: The Dallas Nine and Their Circle (Dallas Museum of Art, 1985), 183-184.
NOTES
Consider changing "Leadbelly" to Lead Belly in accordance with the Lead Belly Foundation (website). Notation also made on the online object draft (1950.91) and the individual object chunk for Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter.
Removed TMS 1950.91 tag.
Adding "draft" tag back to note, Dec 19, 2016, as part of the revised harvest/route procedure. This note will be pulled into GDrive and manually moved to Queta's folders for final review. Update- January 18, 2017- Adding #routed tag so that I can easily keep track of this note in Evernote to confirm that it is eventually pushed into GDrive. As of January 18, 2017 the content is in Brain but not in GDrive so I am unable to finish revisions and mark it complete in Evernote or move the GDoc to Queta's folder.
Confirmed note updated in GDrive. Tagged completed and moved GDoc to Queta folder. (1/24/2017)
Add artist geographies- NOT IN GEO X-REFS; These geographies were entered in the "old" geography section and will not be visible online until they are moved.
Dallas
NYC
ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
apply to constituents where id equals 303
Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 303
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General Description
A native to the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Michael G. Owen, graduated from Highland Park High School and then trained at the Dallas Art Institute where his teachers included Olin Travis and Jerry Bywaters. In the 1930s, Owen served as a painter for the Civilian Conservation Corps (at Garner State Park in Uvalde, TX), assisted in the sculptures for the Texas Centennial Esplanade of State, sailed the Caribbean as a deckhand, and was a designer at Southern Potteries in Dallas.
His most famous work, a portrait of the black folksinger Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, was modeled in clay during a single sitting in Leadbelly's New York City apartment, where the old musician strummed the guitar and sang the songs that had made him famous in the South. The 1943 sculpture is Owen's best-known work, and his later career received minimal acclaim. By 1950, he moved to the Pacific Northwest to live with his family. After a severe illness caused muscular and vision deterioration, Owen eventually died without ever having attended the recognition that much of his early Texas work deserves.
Adapted from
- William Keyse Rudolph, DMA Label copy (1950.91), May 2006.
- Rick Stewart, Lone Star Regionalism: The Dallas Nine and Their Circle (Dallas Museum of Art, 1985), 183-184.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
Consider changing "Leadbelly" to Lead Belly in accordance with the Lead Belly Foundation (website). Notation also made on the online object draft (1950.91) and the individual object chunk for Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter.
Removed TMS 1950.91 tag.
Adding "draft" tag back to note, Dec 19, 2016, as part of the revised harvest/route procedure. This note will be pulled into GDrive and manually moved to Queta's folders for final review. Update- January 18, 2017- Adding #routed tag so that I can easily keep track of this note in Evernote to confirm that it is eventually pushed into GDrive. As of January 18, 2017 the content is in Brain but not in GDrive so I am unable to finish revisions and mark it complete in Evernote or move the GDoc to Queta's folder.
Confirmed note updated in GDrive. Tagged completed and moved GDoc to Queta folder. (1/24/2017)
Add artist geographies- NOT IN GEO X-REFS; These geographies were entered in the "old" geography section and will not be visible online until they are moved.
Dallas
NYC
rules
Apply To
Constituents
id
Equals
303
source file
artists_and_designers-0105.xml.nores