George, Thomas Reuben, 1918-2014

Dates

• Existence: 1918 - 2014

Biography

Thomas Reuben Goldberg (George) was born in 1918, in New York City. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1940. After graduation George worked as an industrial designer in New York, before joining the Navy in 1942. After the war, George briefly returned to industrial design but in 1948, he began painting full time, concentrating at first on figurative work. He went to Paris to study at the Academie de la Grande Chaumerie and while there took many painting trips throughout Europe. He returned to the United States in 1953, and settled in Valley Cottage, New York. A cross-country trip taken especially to see steel mills and oil refineries produced, in 1954, George's first abstract works. That same year, George went to Japan where he painted, exhibited his paintings and gave lectures in Seoul and in Okinawa under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. During the 1960's George traveled in search of suitable places to paint. He visited Les Collettes in Cagnes, France in 1964, and the Lofoten Islands in Norway in 1966, before settling in Princeton, New Jersey in 1969. In 1974 and 1976, George was allowed to visit China resulting in drawings of Kweilin Province. By then George had become a promising figure in the art world and was invited to be a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 1978, an artist in residence at Dartmouth College in 1979, and a visiting professor at the Art League of San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1982. Becoming interested in painting gardens George traveled to France in 1983, visiting Monet's garden at Giverny. Closer to home he painted his morning series of pastels of the pond at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. A few years later, he painted his "Garden Series" at Hidcote Manor, Chipping Campden, England. Thomas George attended his 50th Class Reunion at Dartmouth in 1990; he was given an exhibition at the Hood Museum of Art, and gave a lecture as his contribution to the success of the occasion. The following year, he was presented with the Dartmouth College Presidential Medal for Outstanding Leadership and Achievement at the "Will To Excel" event in Lincoln Center, New York City. In 2002, George received the "Pride of the Arts Council Award" from the Arts Council of Princeton. He died on October 21, 2014 at the age of 96.

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