Art for the People: Eric Bransby, American Mural Artist

Growing up in Iowa and Kansas in the early 20th century, Eric Bransby viewed the country through the keen lens of a first generation immigrant. He loved it all: the land, the Omaha Indians, the sod houses and the old Civil War veterans who gathered in town. From his earliest days, his life-long interest in the history and people of America’s pioneer heartland, coupled with his fascination in the beauty and motion of the human figure would set him on a life-long trajectory to become an artist. There was never a moment when he didn’t want to draw. His formal art studies began with Thomas Hart Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute, renowned American mural artist. Four years into Bransby’s time at the Kansas City Art Institute, World War II broke out and he was inducted into the army. After the war, Bransby continued his studies with mural artist, illustrator, and political cartoonist Boardman Robinson, and painter and muralist Jean Charlot at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Bransby would secure his MFA while working with noted colorist and abstract Bauhaus teacher Joseph Albers at Yale University. But after the war the art world had changed. Mural art had fallen out of favor and abstract expressionism was the popular art form. Staying true to his own vision, Bransby went on to establish a unique style, producing a prolific outpouring of public murals, drawings, paintings, frescos, and reliefs. With characteristic good humor, he became an inspiring and devoted teacher. Art for the People: Eric Bransby, American Mural Artist further sheds light on Bransby’s 70+ year relationship with the love of his life, companion and fellow artist Mary Ann Bransby.