From Ohio to the Big Apple:
Clyde Singer's Vision of America
The art world marked the passing, in 1999, of Stark County native Clyde Singer. Singer's signature style, influenced by the American Scene artists such as Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, and Ashcan School artists such as George Bellows, is widely recognized throughout northeast Ohio. In fact, it could be said that Clyde Singer captured much of Ohio's spirit, whether his subject was Downtown Canton or Youngstown, the old backyard of his boyhood home in Malvern or a street scene in New York City.

Clyde Singer was born in Malvern, Ohio, in 1908. As a boy he was fascinated by pictures and copied the color comics from the Sunday newspaper. After high school he was hired as an apprentice at a sign company doing odd jobs and helping paint billboards. His employers first observed his natural talent when he was assigned to paint a large 12-foot Santa Claus for Christmas at the Stark County Courthouse. In 1931 with his life savings of $300 and the promise by an uncle to put him up at no cost, Clyde enrolled at the Columbus Art School. As a student there for two years he further developed his talent. By 1933, he felt that he needed to broaden his horizons and submitted his work to the Art Students League in New York City. He was offered a full scholarship and studied there for two years. Singer then returned to Malvern to set up a studio, but continued to visit New York regularly.

His work addressed both rural and urban themes and was accepted into many regional and national exhibitions. In 1940, Singer was offered a position as Assistant Director of The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown. Thus began an almost sixty year relationship which enriched both Singer and the Youngstown community. He taught classes and helped prepare exhibitions, but was able to work two to four hours a day in his studio at home. The Institute also gave him the opportunity to spend several weeks a year in New York City. Many of Singer's paintings in the ensuing years were inspired by these visits to the "Big Apple." The Canton Museum of Art collected many of these works for an exhibition in 1989 entitled, Clyde Singer's New York. Singer also published over 2,400 weekly columns on art in the Youngstown Vindicator from 1940 until his death.

The artist remained active as a painter and museum curator into the late 1990s. Clyde J. Singer died in January of 1999. Long-time associate and Director of the Butler Institute Dr. Louis Zona noted at his passing, " Perhaps no artist in our region has been more respected or more loved. His work is rich with sentimentality and the romance of revisiting a time or a place long forgotten. [His] paintings truly reveal the sparkle and the magic that was his talent."