Biography
Santos Zingale was born to Sicilian immigrant parents in Milwaukee in 1908. As a child he amused himself making sketches of other children in his neighborhood. He attended Lincoln High School and received a degree in art from Milwaukee State Teachers College (later the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee) in 1931. Following his graduation he spent some time meeting artists in New York. Returning to Milwaukee he shared studio space with fellow artist Alfred Sessler and taught at the Milwaukee County Day School and the Young Pioneers School.
Zingale's artistic interest focused on decaying neighborhoods of Milwaukee and the people in these neighborhoods. His sympathy with the downtrodden led him to be labeled as a radical by the press but gained acclaim for his realist portrayals of urban life. He was a good fit with the Public Works of Art Project, since his art lacked an obvious commercial focus. He produced mural paintings for the PWAP from 1933-1934 and for the Wisconsin Art Project during the period 1936-1942. Paintings from this period portray the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and of oppression in the American South. Zingale expressed his view that "Art must help the development of human consciousness and improve the social order."
Continuing his interest in art education, Zingale worked as a graduate assistant for John Stewart Currie at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and received an MA for his mural on "Democracy in Education" at the UW-Madison School of Education. He joined the Navy in 1944 and served aboard the USS Bremerton through 1946, producing hundreds of drawings of everyday life onboard the ship. Following the war he was hired as a Professor of Art at UW-Madison, where he taught until his retirement in 1978. He remained an active artist until his death in 1999.
Critical Analysis
Zingale's artwork in the 1930s expressed the mood of many artists of the period.His lithographs and woodcuts were simple but powerful and dealt straightforwardly with the trials of the underclass. His oils were masterpieces of the Ashcan School. In the 1940s and 1950s Zingale completed four murals. His 1940 mural for Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin bursts with color and energy. A 1941 mural for the library of the Henry Mitchell High School in Milwaukee has suffered a cruel fate, having been abandoned and damaged more than once before landing in storage at the Racine School District, where it awaits a very uncertain and expensive possible restoration. A fourth mural was completed in 1953 at Marquette University.
Zingale traveled the the American Southwest and was clearly fascinated with the landforms he saw there. But unlike his approach in earlier works, he rendered this scenery in a fantastic, almost surrealistic manner. This style, with shifting shapes and pastel colors characterized many of his later paintings.
Murals
- Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin - Post Office: Fruits of Sturgeon Bay
References
- Mitchell School WPA Mural, Tragic Treasure (Racine History).
- Santos Ision Jackson Zingale (askART).
- Santos Zingale (Find a Grave).
- Santos Zingale (Military Wiki).
- Santos Zingale (Gallery of Wisconsin Art).
- Santos Zingale (Wikipedia).
- Santos Zingale (1908-1999) (Vintage Wisconsin Art).
- Larson Newspapers, Verde Valley Archaeology Center receives a rare painting, Red Rock News September 19 (2019).
- Craig Sterrett, When the WPA Brought an Art Master to Sturgeon Bay, Door County Pulse January 4 (2024).
- Wisconsin Masters: Santos Zingale (Resource Library).
- Dee Hölzel, Zingale mural returned to RUSD storage; future uncertain, Kenosha News February 26 (2023).