Howard Pierce

American, (1912–1994)

Pierce was born in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois, the Art Institute of Chicago and Pomona College in Claremont, CA. He moved to Pasadena, CA in 1934 and worked with William Manaker in 1938. During WWII he worked for the Douglas Aircraft Factory in Long Beach as a production illustrator. His production flourished from his studio in Claremont from the mid-40s to 1968 when he moved to his twenty-acre property in Joshua Tree, CA. His large (up to twelve-feethigh) and small figures exhibit a semi-abstract quality. He preferred abstract, but the public preferred realistic, so he created this compromise. He also worked in concrete, plastic, plaster, brass, pewter, drawings, and anything else he found around the house. Art was his life.