Emil Kosa Jr.
(1903-1968)
Painter, muralist, lithographer. Born in Paris, France on November 28, 1903. Kosa moved to the U.S. with his family at age four. Art studies were begun as a teenager at the Prague Academy and continued at the California Art Institute in Los Angeles (1927), and Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1927-28) under Kupka and Laurens. Upon his return to the U.S., he studied and taught at Chouinard and Otis Art Institutes in LA. During the last 35 years of his life he was a special effects artist for 20th Century Fox Studios and in 1963 won an Oscar for his work on “Cleopatra.” While maintaining a studio-home in L.A., Kosa decorated churches, theaters, and private homes and often taught in nearby Laguna Beach. His oeuvre includes portraits, seascapes, landscapes, figures, and florals in oil and watercolor. He died in L.A. on November 4, 1968.
Member: National Academy of Design; American Watercolor Society; California Watercolor Society (Pres. 1945-46); California Art Club; Los Angeles Art Association.
Exhibited: Golden Gate International Exhibition, 1939; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1940; Biltmore Salon, Los Angeles, 1941; Art Institute of Chicago; National Academy of Design; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Corcoran Gallery of Art; Carnegie Institute.;Metropolitan Museum; Denver Museum; Frye Museum; and many others nationally.
Awards: dozens from 1928-61 in California and nationally.
Works Held: National Academy of Design; California State Library; Santa Barbara Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Boston Museum of Fine Art; Springfield Museum, Massachusettes; Washington State College; Dover High School, Denver; San Diego Museum; Cranbrook Academy; Mormon Church, Salt Lake City.