Kyra Markham

Kyra Markham (born Elaine Hyman, 1891–1967) was an actress, figurative painter and printmaker. Markham was briefly married to the architect Lloyd Wright, and five years later, married the scenographer David Stoner Gaither. She worked for the Federal Arts Project, creating works of social realism that documented American life in the 1930s. During World War II, her art was focused on the propaganda effort against the Nazis.

Biography Markham was born Elaine Hyman in Chicago, Illinois. She studied drawing at the school of the Chicago Art Institute from 1907 to 1909, and subsequently worked as a muralist and printmaker.

In addition to her work as an artist, Markham was an accomplished actress. She appeared with the Chicago Little Theater from 1912 to the 1913. She lived with the author and playwright Theodore Dreiser in Greenwich Village from 1914 to 1916, helping him with his writing, editing, and typing, while also acting with various theater companies. Through Dreiser she became acquainted with H.L Mencken, Edgar Lee Masters, and other writers. In 1927, she married David Gaither Gaither encouraged Markham to pursue "her first love, painting." Before the stock market crash, Markham was a successful bathroom muralist. In 1934, Markham organized her first solo exhibition in Ogunquit, Maine, featuring prints, murals and lithographs. The Hall of Inventions at the 1939 World's Fair in New York included 40 dioramas by Markham. During World War II she created propaganda satirizing the Nazis and promoting patriotism at home. In 1946 Markham and Gaither moved to an old farmhouse in Halifax, Vermont. During the Great Depression, lithography exploded – the WPA/FAP alone published roughly 240,000 prints from 11,285 original images. A mural she painted for the Community Hall in West Halifax, Vermont depicts a barn-raising. Often evoking a dream-like state, Markham's use of light, combined with detailed realism, results in fantastical compositions of daily life (9). Similarly to Paul Cadmus and George Tooker, Markham injected fantasy into the social realist genre.

List of works Nightclub, 1935, lithograph. Fisherman's Luck, 1938, lithograph. Hotcha, 1938, aquatint. Ohmpeer, 1944, lithograph. Bleecker Street Fire Hydrant, 1942, lithograph. July 4th, 1936, 1936, lithograph. Cherry Blossom in Brooklyn, 1937, lithograph. The Silver Trumpets of the Rain, 1936, lithograph. New Year's Eve in Greenwich Village, 1938, oil on canvas laid on masonite. Flag Raising in Leroy Street, 1942, lithograph. Mature Vision, 1935, lithograph. Stage Door Johnnie, 1937, lithograph. Sailors at Penn Station, 1944, lithograph. The Fit Yourself Shop, 1935, lithograph. The Show is Over, 1936, lithograph. At Her Dressing Table, 1939, oil on canvas board. Laughing Gas (Theodore Dreiser's Operation), 1943, lithograph. Summer Idyll, 1941, aquatint. Burlycue, 1936, lithograph. , 1961, oil on masonite. Elin and Maria, 1934, lithograph.