Edward Laning

Edward Laning (1906–1981) was an American painter.

Career

Background Laning was born in 1906 in Petersburg, Illinois.

He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (1923–1924) and the University of Chicago, (1925–1927). He also studied at the Art Students League with Max Weber, Boardman Robinson, John Sloan and Kenneth Hayes Miller (1927–1930).

On August 26, 1933, he married the painter and printmaker Mary Fife, whom he had met at the Art Students League.

Paintings, murals

In 1931, Laning's work formed part of the first major show at the newly formed Whitney Museum of American Art. He painted murals for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression In 1935, he painted the Ellis Island murals (chosen over Japanese-American artist Hideo Noda): It was a great relief to PWA, to the College Art Association, to Architects Harvey Wiley Corbett and Chester Holmes Aldrich and to Edward Laning last week to learn that Commissioner of Immigration & Naturalization Rudolph Reimer at Ellis Island had finally approved Artist Laning's designs for murals for the dining hall at New York's immigrant station. Cheered, Muralist Laning and his two assistants, James Rutledge and Albert Soroka, hustled to get his cartoons on tempera and gesso panels as soon as possible. In 1937, he painted murals in the New York Public Library, including his most famous work, The Story of the Recorded Word. He was a member of the American Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers and the National Academy of Design. He served as president of the National Society of Mural Painters from 1970 to 1974.

Death Laning died in 1981 in New York, survived by his wife, artist Mary Fife Laning.

Art Fourteenth Street (1931) 1929 Crash (1929?) Pantheon (1937) New York Public Library murals (1937): The Story of the Recorded Word Learning to Read History of the Written Word The Role of the Immigrant in the Industrial Development of American (1937) The Past as Connecting Threads in Human Life, triptych, USPO, Rockingham, North Carolina (1937) Prometheus (1942) Armor in Alaska (1943) Kiska Raid (1943) Florence August 1944 (1944) Saturday Afternoon at Sportsmans Park The Building (c. 1955) Union Pacific (north side mural at Union Station) (1980) Central Pacific (south side mural at Union Station) (1980)

Writings Perspective for Artists (1967) The Act of Drawing (1971) The Sketch Books of Reginald Marsh

Editing Sketchbooks of Reginald Marsh, compiled by Edward Laning (1973)

Illustrations Hello, the Boat! by Phyllis Crawford with pictures by Edward Laning (1938)