John Nathaniel Fenton

Ivory Tower

1960

John Nathaniel Fenton was born in 1929 in Mountaindale, New York. He is a 20th-century American painter and printmaker, who studied at the Art Students League, New York, and at the Atelier 17, Paris. He also studied under and worked with Frederico Castellón and Samuel Adler. During his career, Fenton exhibited at such important institutions as the Audubon Artist; the National Academy of Design; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; the Butler Institute of American Art and Art Institute of Chicago. Fenton was a full-time member of the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum and served as an instructor of art at New York University. In 1958, Fenton won awards from both the National Academy of Design and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among his other honors are a Purchase Prize from the New School Graphics Annual and an Edition Purchase from the Pratt Institute. Today, his paintings are included in such collections as the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the Pennsylvania State University; the Suffolk Museums, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum and many important private art collections. Fenton died in Woodstock in 1977.