Witold Gordon

Witold Gordon Radio City Music Hall

Witold Gordon was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1885 and studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.   After he finished his studies, he moved to New York.   He worked with Donald Deskey  in the design of Radio City Music Hall where two of his murals are exhibited.   He illustrated books, and designed the poster for the Olympic Games in Lake Placid, NY in 1933.  In 1939 he created a painting for the New York Worlds' Fair.   He traveled throughout the South and produced a series of paintings with the name "American Scene" which was exhibited in 1941 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  During his travels he painted in Gouache storefronts and housefronts that he felt showed the true face of America.  In 1934 he was commissioned by Conde Nast to paint a series of "New York Shops" (New York Shops you Never See) which were published in Vanity Fair Magazine in July of 1934.   In 1932 when Georgia O'Keefe accepted the commission to paint a mural in the Ladies' Room in Radio City Music Hall and abandoned it at the advice of her husband, Alfred Steiglitz who said "Ms. O'Keefe does NOT do bathrooms!", Witold Gordon was given the commission and painted two murals for Deskey's masterpiece.
Witold Gordon died in 1968.

Country of origin: 

Poland

Life Span: 

1885 - 1968

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