Edward Biberman

Biberman wrote two books about his paintings, The Best Untold and Time and Circumstance. From 1938 to 1950, he taught at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, California (now known as Art Center College of Design in Pasadena,) and lectured widely on art subjects for the University Extension of UCLA. In the 1960s, Biberman hosted television programs on art, including Dialogues in Art from 1967–1968.

Over the course of his career, Biberman exhibited his works at more than 35 solo exhibitions in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, and California. His works were also displayed at the American Artists' Congress (1936), the San Francisco Art Association (1937), the Golden Gate International Exposition (1939), the California Art Club (1943), and the Whitney Museum (1953). His never before seen painting entitled "The Biafran Child" is under consideration as a stamp for the benefit of the homeless children of Haiti and is to be housed at the original Hospital Albert Schweitzer, at Lambaréné in Gabon, Africa. The donation is to remain unnamed. His paintings are now to be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. His life-size portraits of singer Lena Horne and author Dashiell Hammett form part of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Among his awards are the Lambert Fund Purchase Prize.

In 1931, he lived for the summer in a Navajo settlement at Monument Valley, where his work focused on both the Navajo people and on their desert surroundings. His experiences there inspired in him a love of the southwestern United States. Following his arrival in Los Angeles in 1936, the city which would inspire some of his best-known work, he decided to move there permanently. By 1940, the Spring Street lobby of the newly constructed U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles featured the federally commissioned mural Los Angeles Prehistoric Spanish Colonial, by Biberman. In 1965, when the Post Office was moved and the Courthouse remodeled, all murals were removed and placed in storage. Fortunately, Los Angeles Prehistoric Spanish Colonial was returned to the building's Spring Street lobby in 2003.

Preceding Biberman's move to California, the artist became intrigued by the allure of the Southwest desert. In the early 1930s he acquainted himself with Georgia O'Keeffe and John Marin. Like O’Keeffe, Biberman painters modified realist painting by applying a modernist aesthetic. After moving to Los Angeles, Biberman became an essential part of the mid-century Los Angeles art scene. He often painted the figure as a way of addressing issues of race, immigration, labor, and ensuing social inequality around the world. His painting of The Biafran Child has become a symbol for the future of our children lest we mend our ways and was under consideration for a commemorative stamp for the benefit of the homeless children of Haiti.

Biberman was born into a prosperous Philadelphia family of Russian Jewish immigrants, and studied economics at the Wharton School. His later studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, followed by three years in Paris, led to his decision to become a full-time artist. He lived in New York City from 1929 to 1936, where he came into contact with the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco; thanks to their influence, Biberman became a champion of public murals. In 1930, he was named one of the "46 Under 35" younger artists featured in a Museum of Modern Art exhibition.

Biberman was married for 51 years to Sonja Dahl Biberman (1910–2007), an artist in her own right. His great-nephew is Jeremy Strick, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Edward Biberman died of cancer in 1986.

Edward Biberman (October 23, 1904 – January 27, 1986) was an American artist active in the mid-twentieth century. His work ranged from stylised portraits to history-inspired murals, and drew on the emerging urban landscapes of southern California, and on current events such as the Great Depression, the Second World War, and labour unrest.