RARE Important Black African American WPA Modern Portrait Oil Painting MILLER

  

This is an expressive and RARE Important Black African American WPA Modern Portrait Oil Painting on Canvas, by esteemed New Jersey African American Portrait Artist, Printmaker, and Muralist, Donald "Don" Lloyd Miller 1923 - 1993. This early portrait likely dates to the 1950's and depicts the portrait of a young African American man, wearing a red shirt, and staring just to the side of the viewer's gaze. Signed: "Don Miller" in the lower left corner. Approximately 13 x 16 3/4 including unpainted areas.

Actual painting is approximately 12 x 16 inches. Miller is most famously known for his epic and grand scale Martin Luther King murals, which are permanently housed in the Montclair Public Library, in New Jersey. An original painting by Donald L. Miller has not been publicly offered for sale since 2008. Acquired in Los Angeles County, California.

If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! 1923 - Jamaica, West Indies.

1993 - Montclair, New Jersey. Civil rights movement themed painting, murals, illustrations.

Following is The New York Times obituary of Donald Miller. Miller, 69, Painter and Illustrator.

Donald Lloyd Miller, the artist whose mural dominates the main lobby of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, died on Sunday at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, N. He was 69 and had lived in Montclair since he was a child. The cause was a heart attack, his family said. Miller was born in Jamaica and was brought to this country as an infant. He trained at Cooper Union and the Art Students League. His life's work was interpreting the black experience in the United States, the West Indies and Africa. His oils and watercolors were frequently exhibited in this country and in Jamaica and are in the permanent collections of the Newark Museum, Smithsonian Institution and other museums. Miller's work reflected the spirit of the emerging civil rights movement. His magnum opus, the "King Mural, " depicts the life and work of Dr.

Seven feet high and 56 feet long, it was commissioned by the library and was unveiled in January 1986 for the first observance of Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday. The artist also produced illustrations for books at his studio in Montclair, which was called the Don Miller Studio. Miller is survived by his wife of 40 years, Dr.

Julia Miller; two sons, Eric, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Craig, of West Orange, N. His mother, Rhena Miller of Montclair; two brothers, Claude, of Plainfield, N.

And Kenneth, of Cranford, N. A sister, Ethel Henderson of West Paterson, N. Jill Craven, Chair of English Department, Millersville University, Millersville, Pennsylvania. Jamaican-born Donald Lloyd Miller came to the United States with his family when he was just five years old.

He became a cartoonist for The Adakian, a newspaper run by the famous mystery author Corporal Dashiell Hammett. Miller became a well-known artist, illustrator of children's books, and art professor. Donald Lloyd Miller (Don) was born in Jamaica in 1923 and came to the United States with his family when he was young. The Millers lived in Montclair, New Jersey.

Don studied art at Cooper Union, the Art Students League, and the New School, all in New York City. When World War II broke out, Mr. As an artist, he was chosen by famed author and Army Corporal Dashiell Hammett, to be a cartoonist and portraitist for the daily military newspaper, The Adakian. Hammett's unit of the Adakian staff was the only integrated unit in World War II.

The Army was officially desegregated by President Henry S. Miller, saw Dashiell Hammett's decision to integrate the newspaper staff as a stand against segregation. Hammett didn't ask permission from his superiors, but simply hired two Black men, Mr. Miller and Alva Morris, the printer. Peter Porco, who wrote the Anchorage Daily Times article "Deadline Adak: Dashing Dashiell Hammett's Adak Newspaper for the Troops, " interviewed a few staff members of the Adakian.

Bill Glackin agreed that it was intentional integration. His son Brendan recalled, My father said it was at Hammett's insistence.

He was really proud of the fact his unit had integrated. Other staff members felt the integration was normal. Bernard Kalb (staff writer), said I didn't have any idea we were part of a racial revolution. My reaction was: This is perfectly normal to have the different races thrown together. Miller told the Anchorage Daily News that being assigned to the Adakian was one of life's strange and rare pieces of unexplained good luck.

Julia "Judy" Miller recalled, it was an experience that changed his life, because most of the guys were older, and it opened up another world to him. Miller went on to have a long career as an artist and illustrator, in addition to being an art professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. His wife was the Director of the Black Studies Center there. Miller is best known for the massive (56 feet x 7 feet) mural in the Martin Luther King Jr.

Memorial Library in Washington, DC that he painted. The mural depicts not only Dr. But other famous Civil Rights activists and people who lost their lives in the fight for Civil Rights. According to a pamphlet promoting the new (1986) mural, Mr. Miller's King Mural is a tour de force-the nation's definitive visual documentation of Dr.

King's great influence on modern American society. To the many achievements and sacrifices of Dr. King and the movement he led, Don Miller has committed his talents as an artist. In a 1998 exhibit at Seton Hall University of Mr.

Miller's work, his wife wrote in the exhibit catalogue, Early in his life, Don became fascinated by Black history and its heroes. It was a vital part of his own identity. Don's dream was an artist's dream-that their work would continue to influence, inspire, and in his case, continue to instruct, long after they have departed. Miller passed away in 1993, and his wife, Dr. Julia "Judy" Miller, died in 2021.

This early painting by photo-journalist, muralist, illustrator and educator is a scarce work from the 1950s. Miller started his artistic career as an illustrator for Dashiel Hammett during World War II for an Army newspaper in the Pacific. After the World War, he travelled extensively to Europe, the West Indies, Mexico and across Africa.

His career culminated with the commission of his celebrated 56 foot mural for the Martin Luther King Memorial Library in Washington, DC, a massive 2 year project. A student at the Art Students League and Cooper Union in New York, Miller was for many years a professor of art at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ and resident of Montclair, NJ. His artwork is found in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institute, the Newark Museum of Art, and other museums. Montclair Artist Don Miller's "The King Mural" Screening and Presentation at MPL.

Will host a short screening and presentation by Craig Miller, Dr. Judy Miller and Frank Gerard Godlewski about. Craig Miller, son of Don Miller, will discuss the art of the King Mural and his father's art-making process. He will share the presentation recently offered at the Martin Luther King Jr.

Memorial Library in Washington, with photos of Don Miller making the mural, and discuss the importance of the imagery in the mural. The mural, painted in his studio in Montclair, was installed at the National Library In Washington, D. On August 27, 1985, many of Dr. King's closest associates and historic civil rights figures came to visit Miller to participate in an extraordinary taping for Montclair resident and TV personality Gil Noble's ABC TV show, "Like It Is" with a special episode, "The Making of the King Mural, " using the mural as a backdrop.

For five hours they shared their experiences with Dr. King and his important influence on their lives. Several of the historic figures portrayed in the artwork came to Montclair for the mural.

Rosa Parks, the heroine of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, as did Dr. Caroline Goodman, the mother of the slain CORE worker Andrew Goodman, Reverend Ralph D. Dorothy Cotton from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta's Mayor Andrew Young, Rev C. Vivian and Rev Wyatt Tee Walker.

The great American pianist Don Shirley's elegant music often served as an inspiration for the artist for the creation of this monumental tribute to Dr. A smaller copy will be hung on the second floor of the library. Don Miller's "The King Mural" screening and presentation. Montclair resident's King mural now at Public Library. The late Montclair artist Don Miller created a big tribute to the great civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

When he painted a mural celebrating the man, the people in King's life, and the movement he led. That giant mural, seven feet high and 56 feet long, has had a home in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D. Since January 1986, when King's birthday was first observed as a national holiday.

A smaller version of that mural recently became a permanent fixture inside the Montclair Public Library on South Fullerton Avenue. This version, called a maquette, was a model used by Miller as a guide when creating the larger work, and has been in the Miller family's possession for years. 1, people gathered in the library to not only view Miller's masterwork on the second floor of the library, but also to hear about how Miller created the mural. Miller's son, Craig, gave a PowerPoint presentation that included photos he took of his father and others who worked with him on the mural. Miller's widow, Julia Miller, was in the audience looking on while her son addressed the audience.

Among the information that Craig Miller shared was that, while working on the mural in his studio on Bloomfield Avenue, his father received visits from some of the prominent civil rights figures who were featured in his work. Among the visitors was the famed activist Rosa Parks, who helped Don Miller correct an error in his mural regarding the name of the bus that Parks rode on in December 1955 where she famously refused to give up her seat. Rosa Parks walked in and said'no. It was not Capital Heights, it was actually Cleveland Avenue, Craig Miller said.

Rosa Parks tells you what the sign on the bus was, you get up on that scaffold and you repaint it. Craig Miller spoke to The Montclair Times after the presentation about how his father, who served as president of the Montclair Public Library's Board of Trustees in the 1970s, would have felt about the mini-version of the mural being installed in the local library. "He would be absolutely amazed to know that it has been placed here permanently, " Craig Miller said.

Julia Miller told The Times what it meant to her to see the version of the mural now placed in the library, and the presentation about her husband's work on the mural. I can hear his voice. I can hear him tonight, Julia Miller said.

Miller created the King mural, also known as the Martin Luther King Freedom Mural, through a two-year period, according to his son. He said his father created the mural based on research that included reading at 20 books about King and studying numerous photos. Craig Miller said that after the mural was finished, it had to be taken out of the studio and transported down to the nation's capital, which involved "meticulous planning" to remove it from the room. His father followed the truck transporting the mural to Washington D.

Miller then made the connection between the large-scale mural in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and the mini-version now in the Montclair Public Library. The smaller version ended up in the MPL through the efforts of local historian Frank Godlewski, a longtime friend of the Miller family, and the Montclair Rotary Club, with the cooperation of the Miller family. It has been an idea that a copy of this mural should be installed someplace in Montclair so that it could be used as a learning tool.