'Pink Flamingos by a Waterfall' by Lois Elaine Green Cohen, Mid-Century California Woman Artist, Chouinard

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Signed lower right, 'L. G. Cohen' for Lois Elaine Green Cohen (American, 1919-2012) and painted circa 1975.
Previously with: James … Read more Signed lower right, 'L. G. Cohen' for Lois Elaine Green Cohen (American, 1919-2012) and painted circa 1975.
Previously with: James Snidle Fine Art, Rancho Mirage, CA

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Lois Green first studied fashion illustration at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and with Samuel Rosenberg. While in Pittsburgh, Green worked as a fashion illustrator before moving to Los Angeles in 1938 where she studied at the Chouinard School and UCLA while working as a film illustrator. In 1945, she married her Eugene Cohen.

Green Cohen worked for MGM on and off for about 30 years, on such well-known Hollywood films as the 1951 Gene Kelly musical 'An American in Paris', 'Around the World in 80 Days' (she designed the film's spectacular balloon) and 'Ziegfeld Follies', starring legendary water-ballet artist Esther Williams. She also put in sketch time on science-fiction films at Fox, and films at RKO and Columbia, where she did an incredible 250 drawings (some from "up on cranes and up on a boom") of just the ballet scene in the Rita Hayworth picture Down to Earth.

Along with her career as a film illustrator, Cohen began a 13 year project at the Griffith Observatory in 1973. She filled the vacated seat of Chesley Bonesteel, "the most famous space artist of all time," and, as planetarium artist for observatory, she did all of the outer-space paintings for their diorama project.

Cohen exhibited with success including the San Diego Museum (1952), the Pasadena Museum (1953), the Steinbeck Center (1999), Los Angeles Art Association (1939-1986), and San Francisco's de Young Museum (1954), Oakland Museum (1958) and the Santa Paula Museum (1960). She was a member of the California Watercolor Society and the Los Angeles Art Association. A dedicated artist, Cohen considered herself a student of art and painted daily, taking art classes weekly even at the age of 97.

Reference:
Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 1, page 456; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 2, page 1360; Note from Denise Weatherwax; etc. See less