Clyde Singer Exhibition

September 27. 2020 -January 3, 2021

Clyde Singer was an institution in our town. The long-time curator of the Butler who died in 1999 was everybody’s favorite artist. His teachers at the art students league included Reginald Marsh and Kenneth Hayes Miller, both represented in the Butler collection.

A favorite Singer painting is called Minor League which features a minor league Baseball game being played at the old Idora Park ball field. The painting resides in the Donnell

Sports Gallery at the Butler and is typical of Singer’s traditional realist style. The ball players depicted are characteristic Singer figures.  Of special note is the fact that the artist

Includes himself and his wife Bernita in the ballpark bleachers. Clyde Singer was born in Malvern Ohio and was stationed in the South Pacific during World War II. He became the Butler curator immediately after the war. His love of New York City was obvious since virtually every summer he would take the bus into the city for days of painting. Except for Youngstown subjects, New York themes dominate his work.

The Butler Singer collection includes dozens of paintings donated by Cleveland businessman Joseph Erdelac and an assortment of donated works from local collectors over the years.

Singer was often asked to evaluate works of art by local collectors. His response to everyonewho approached him with a painting with the hope of a Singer assessment was “There’s nothing wrongwith that”.

-Louis Zona