D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc.

ALBERT GOLD (1916-2006)

Available Work | Biography

Modernism 1913-1950 | Realism of the 1930s & 1940s | Abstraction of the 1930s & 1940s | Post-War | Selected Biographies

Albert Gold was born October 31, 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Northeast High School in Philadelphia in 1935. In addition to working at a variety of jobs during high school, Gold spent many hours sketching on the streets and along the waterfront of Philadelphia.

In 1935, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. Gold sketched in the museum and disciplined himself by drawing complicated construction machinery. During his student years he exhibited his work in the annual watercolor and oil exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He became a regular exhibitor there, as well as at other major national shows. He exhibited at the New York World’s Fair in 1939.

In 1942, he was awarded the Prix de Rome by the American Academy. That same year, he exhibited in the Artists For Victory, Inc. exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; later that year, he was inducted into the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1943, he became one of twelve artists chosen by the Army Corps of Engineers to make a pictorial record of the war overseas. He documented the war in England, France and Germany. Gold sketched and painted every day and learned to work rapidly and decisively.  He made hundreds of war drawings and watercolors, many which are in the collection of the Pentagon.

In 1946 and 1947, he was awarded two consecutive Tiffany Foundation Grants. With these grants, Gold had the opportunity to work on a group of large oil paintings based on his war drawings.

He taught at the Philadelphia Museum School from 1946 to 1985, the Fleisher School in Philadelphia from 1947 to 1965, and Pyle Studio in Delaware from 1956 to 1962. He won dozens of awards for his work and had many solo shows, including exhibitions at the Musée Galleria, Paris, France; the Philadelphia Art Alliance; and Woodmere Art Museum in Pennsylvania. In addition to many private collections, his work is in the collections of over a dozen museums, including the Harvard Art Museums, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution.