Born in Sicily, Alfredo DeGiorgio Crimi emigrated to New York with his parents at age 10. His interest in art blossomed there, and he began formal studies at the National Academy of Design. He opened a studio in Greenwich Village and was soon recognized for his skill at life drawing. After a year of study at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, Crimi held a one-man show in New York in 1928. The following year he studied fresco and encaustic at the Scuola Preparatoria Alle Arti Ornamentali in Rome, receiving first prize for fresco painting upon graduation. At this time he returned to his home town of San Fratello to paint and visit Sicilian cathedrals, the subject for one of his best-known later paintings. Back in the United States he worked briefly in Portland, Oregon and again in New York. There he met his future wife Mary Timpone at the home of his brother Fred. Fred and his wife Sara were musicians, and Mary was at their home for a chamber music performance. Mary, like Alfred, had been born in San Fratello; they were married in 1935. With the advent of the Public Works of Art Project, Crimi received a commission to paint a fresco for the Open Air Aquarium in Key West. Crimi's original mural there was destroyed, but a reproduction was installed in its place. Crimi produced other significant murals for the Harlem Hospital, the main Post Office building in Washington, the Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York, and Post Offices in Northampton, Massachusetts and Wayne, Pennsylvania. Shockingly, the administrators of the Rutgers Presbyterian Church destroyed Crimi's mural, despite his strenuous legal objections. The administrators couldn't deal with Christ's bare and muscular chest in the Crimi mural. Fortunately, the other major Crimi murals are still available for public viewing. During the War, Crimi worked for the Graphic Engineering Department at Sperry Gyroscope, where he produced drawings to be used in military training manuals. These drawings were also published in popular magazines. As Crimi worked at this activity, he began to develop a theory of what he called "multi-dimensional painting". In contrast to chiaroscuro, this technique presents images through transparent, geometrical, overlapping planes — an approach well-suited to the abstract images of Crimi's later work. His post-war art exploited this new approach and won him further critical acclaim.Shutter Eye, 1960Woodworker
Critical Analysis
The arc of Crimi's career shows a muralist who turned to easel painting. This evolution, as noted above, was facilitated by the development of a new approach to painting and, in particular, the use of light in painting. Crimi was a master of the traditional art of fresco painting, and he became a pioneer in the development of abstract act. His works in both genres are compelling. As a teacher and educator he was widely influential. He taught at City College, the Pratt Institute and Penn State University. He wrote a book on The Art of Abstract Dimensional Painting (for which the publisher garbled his key phrase "Multi-Dimensional Painting") and produced a film on The Making and Fascination of Fresco Painting. He created drawings, oils, watercolors, frescos and glass mosaics. With such diversity, he was a hard person for critics to peg, but his work was widely seen and appreciated.
Murals
Washington, District of Columbia - William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building: Post Office Work Room
Washington, District of Columbia - William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building: Transportation of Mail
