Nell Sinton

Eleanor "Nell" Walter Sinton (née Eleanor Walter; 1910–1997) was an American artist, an art community leader, and educator. She was a distinguished San Francisco Bay Area abstract painter and collagist. Sinton served on the San Francisco Arts Commission, and she was one of the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Art Institute.

Early life and education Eleanor Walter was born in 1910 in San Francisco, California to a prominent Jewish family active in Congregation Emanu-El. The Walter family ancestors had arrived in San Francisco in 1851, during the Gold Rush. Her father worked as a treasurer in the family investment and merchant business, D. N. & E. Walter & Company (David Nathan and Emanuel Walter and Company). Her father served in many local leadership roles, including as the President of the California School of Fine Arts (later known as San Francisco Art Institute).

Sinton attended Miss Burke's School during high school. Between 1922 and 1923, she attended classes at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) on Saturday mornings, before she decided to formally study there. In the 1960s, her work was fully abstract; and by the 1970s she was working in a loose but figurative phase.

Sinton served on the San Francisco Arts Commission from 1959 until 1963, and she was one of the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Art Institute from 1966 until 1972.

Mills College in Oakland held a retrospective of her work in 1981. and the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). She also has files held at the Archives of American Art (a Smithsonian Institution), and the Bancroft Library.

Exhibitions

1947 – solo exhibition, Raymond and Raymond Gallery, San Francisco, California 1963 – "Corridor: Fred Martin, Roy De Forest, Tony DeLap, Nell Sinton," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California 1981 – solo exhibition retrospective, Mills College, Oakland, California 1987 – "Early Works: Nell Sinton," solo exhibition, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, California