Joseph Vorst Art

Joseph Vorst, German-born, came from Essen (born June 19, 1897). His teacher was the leading German impressionist Max Liebermann (1847–1935), who was the champion of French impressionism in Berlin. Vorst had traveled to Barbizon and Paris to see paintings by Manet first hand, including In the Conservatory, which made its way to Berlin. Later Vorst's home town of Essen would acquire a collection of modern art in 1921, which became the Museum Folkwang, one of the earliest of its kind. Most likely to escape the Nazis, Vorst made his way to Missouri; we know that he was a member of the American Artists Congress and he signed the famous "Call" in 1936 at the group's first congress, the left-wing organization that stood up to combat fascism. Surely Vorst would have known Joe Jones (1909–1963), the representative on the National Executive Committee from St. Louis who was later reprimanded for producing Communist propaganda at his art classes for homeless youth set up in the St. Louis Court House. Vorst also knew Thomas Hart Benton, called his friend and associate. In 1936, Vorst exhibited Missouri Mules at the Art Institute of Chicago. Vorst’s paintings Drifters on the Mississippi and Picking Strawberries were on display there in the two subsequent annual exhibitions. Then in 1939, Vorst's Drought was shown at the Corcoran biennial and on a grander scale, many more viewers saw his Madonna of the Tiff Miners at the New York World's Fair that year. During what amounted to a "peak year" for Vorst, his work entitled Fear was part of the art exhibited at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. At the same time, Vorst was working on a mural in the Vandalia, Missouri Post Office called Corn Harvest. In 1940, Vorst took on another decorative project for the Paris, Arkansas Post Office (Rural Arkansas). One further post office mural came in 1942 - Time Out - in Bethany, Missouri. Vorst was honored with one-man shows in New York, Washington and St. Louis. Vorst re-exhibited Picking Strawberries in 1940 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and a year later his After Flood (Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago) appeared there. In 1942, Vorst showed Refugees at the Whitney Annual and a year later his Good Lord Gives Peace was on view at the Corcoran Gallery and at the Art Institute of Chicago. For two more years, Vorst submitted paintings to the Whitney: Family Festival (1945) and The Keeper (1946). Vorst also worked as an illustrator for Esquire and executed lithographs. Vorst died in 1947 at the age of 50. The St. Louis Art Museum has Vorst's painting, For Thine is the Kingdom.