Biography

Richard Zoellner was an energetic individual and a prodigiously productive artist. Born in Portsmouth on the Ohio River 100 miles above Cincinnati, at age 20 he paddled a canoe all the way to New Orleans. He studied art at the Cincinnati Art Academy and then studied in New York and Mexico on a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation scholarship. In 1933 he established a studio in Cincinnati, where he received a flurry of commissions from the Section of Fine Arts. These included six post office murals, paintings for U.S. Marine hospitals and murals for the Cincinnati Zoo.

Following the war Zoellner accepted a position at the University of Alabama. His focus there was on printmaking, and he established what was one of only two programs in fine art printmaking in the Southeast. Zoellner prided himself as an abstract artist, claiming to be the only such artist in the Southeast in the 1950s and 1960s. His professorship at Alabama lasted until his retirement in 1978, influencing a whole generation of artists who participated in the programs there.

Following his retirement, Zoellner moved to a more representational style, but continued his high level of productivity up until his death in 2003. Notably, in 1992 (at age 84) he traveled to the Yucatan, producing a series inspired by the Mayan ruins. His work was well received and widely exhibited, and he received a number of awards in the course of his career.

Critical Analysis

Zoellner was a prolific artist and talented printmaker. His work evolved from representational forms in the 1930s, well-matched to the demands of federal programs of that era, to abstract work in the post-war period. In his later years, following his retirement from the University of Alabama, he returned to a more representational style. While Zoellner prided himself as an abstract painter, it is the technical mastery of his work that is more striking than the nature of his abstract compositions.

Murals

• Cleveland, Ohio - Pearlbrook Station Post Office: Ore Docks and Steel Mills
• Georgetown, Ohio - Post Office: Tobacco Harvest
• Hamilton, Ohio - Post Office: Agriculture
• Hamilton, Ohio - Post Office: Fort Hamilton
• Hamilton, Ohio - Post Office: Industries of Hamilton
• Portsmouth, Ohio - Post Office: Coal Barges
• Portsmouth, Ohio - Post Office: Waterfront
• Mannington, West Virginia - Post Office: Landscape of Frogtown

References

1. Staff Writer, Nationally-known artist Zoellner dies at 94, The Gadsden Times March 8 (2003).
2. Deidre Stalnaker, Noted Artist and UA Professor Richard Zoellner Dies, University of Alabama News Center March 7 (2003).
3. Staff Writer, Richard C. Zoellner, Tuscaloosa News March 7 (2003).
4. Richard Charles Zoellner (Dayton Art Institute).