Nationality German, American Name Joseph Vorst Spouse(s) Lina (1900?–92?) | Movement Regionalism Known for Murals, Lithography Died 1947 | |
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Full Name Joseph Paul Vorst Born 1897 Essen, Germany Patrons Works Progress Administration | ||
Joseph Paul Vorst was born in 1897 in Essen, Germany. He studied at the Folkwang Schule in Hagen before serving in World War I, from which he received a permanent limp. He studied art at the National Academy of Berlin with Max Lieberman and Max Slevogt, and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1924. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1935, settling in Missouri near his cousins in Ste. Genevieve.
He taught art in St. Louis and did much public work for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Among other locations Vorst was art director at Jefferson College. According to an article on him in the LDS Improvement Era written by William Mulder he assisted full-time LDS missionaries in St. Louis extensively in sharing the gospel with more people.
His work is owned or has been shown by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery, the New York World’s Fair, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery, the Smithsonian, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the St. Louis Art Museum. He also exhibited his work in both the Deseret Gym art room and the Springville Art Museum.
Vorst died of an aneurysm in 1947.