15 Facts About Kyra Markham

Kyra Markham worked for the Federal Arts Project, creating works of social realism that documented American life in the 1930s.

Kyra Markham studied drawing at the Chicago Art Institute from 1907 to 1909, and subsequently worked as a muralist and printmaker.

Kyra Markham appeared with the Chicago Little Theater from 1912 to the 1913.

Kyra Markham lived with the author and playwright Theodore Dreiser in Greenwich Village from 1914 to 1916, helping him with his writing, editing, and typing, while acting with various theater companies.

In 1934, Kyra Markham organized her first solo exhibition in Ogunquit, Maine, featuring prints, murals and lithographs.

Kyra Markham created works of social realism depicting street beggars, musicians, actors and scenes from department stores.

In recognition of her work, Markham received the prestigious Mary S Collins Prize at the Philadelphia Print Club's annual exhibition the following year for her lithograph Elin and Maria.

Kyra Markham sold work to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Library of Congress and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Kyra Markham stopped making prints after moving to her remote Vermont farm, but continued to work in more accessible mediums such as painting, drawing and ceramics.

Kyra Markham was a member of the Southern Vermont Artists Association and participated in their annual exhibitions in Manchester.

Kyra Markham worked as an illustrator for Children's books during this time.

Kyra Markham moved to Port-au-Prince in Haiti as a widow in 1960.

Kyra Markham was still enthusiastic for her work, and her later work reflected Markham's new home.

Kyra Markham's work explored the incredible and grim aspects of modern society with a strong interest in labor themes, like much of the socially concerned art of the 1930s.

Similarly to Paul Cadmus and George Tooker, Kyra Markham injected fantasy into the social realist genre.