Irving Amen (1918-2011) American " Troubadours" AP Etching Signed in lower right in Pencil Amen. Titled Troubadours and listed as A/P Born in New York City, he began drawing at the young age of four. By the time he was fourteen years old, he won a scholarship to the Pratt Institute. He emulated Michelangelo's masterpieces and spent years perfecting his own unique style. From 1942 to 1945 he served with the Armed Forces. He headed a mural project and executed murals in the United States and Belgium. He had his first exhibition was at the New School for Social Research in New York and his second at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington in 1949. Amen studied in Paris in 1950. Upon his return to the United States, he had one man shows in New York and Washington DC. In 1953, Amen traveled throughout Italy. This resulted in a series of eleven woodcuts, eight etchings and a number of oil paintings. One of these woodcuts, Piazza San Marco #4 and its four woodblocks constitute a permanent exhibit of block printing in color at the Smithsonian Institution. Travel in Israel, Greece and Turkey in 1960 led to a retrospective show in Jerusalem. His art is widely owned and loved. Irving Amen has taught at Pratt Institute and at the University of Notre Dame. Commissions include a Peace Medal in honor of the Vietnam War and 12 stained glass windows for the Agudas Achim Synagogue in Ohio. He is listed in Mantle Fielding Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers and the Dictionary of Contemporary American Artists by Paul Cummings. Some of the museums that represent his art are: Albertina Museum - Vienna Baltimore Museum of Art - Maryland Bezalel National Museum - Jerusalem Corcoran Gallery of Art - Washington, DC Fogg Art Museum - Massachusetts Jewish Museum - New York Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York Boston Museum of Fine Arts - Massachusetts Museum of Modern Art - New York Philadelphia Museum of Art - Pennsylvania Smithsonian Institution - Washington, DC Statische Museum - Germany Victoria and Albert Museum - England Overall Size: 20 3/8 x 21 3/8 in. Sight Size: 14 x 15 in. #5766