Bidspirit auction | JOHN PORTER LEEPER, OIL ON

JOHN PORTER LEEPER, OIL ON BOARD - An original oil on board by listed artist, John Porter Leeper, circa 1949. Signed lower left and comes in a custom wood frame measuring, 34'' H x 42'' W. Born in Dandridge, Tennessee, John Leeper was known in Arizona for his mural painting and in California for watercolor abstractions, city genre, and female figural works. He was raised in Phoenix and studied art there for several years and then took further instruction at the Otis Art Institute. In the 1930s, he returned to Arizona and worked on murals for the Federal Relief Administration project until 1942. He taught art classes at The Phoenix Federal Art Center, a WPA project and forerunner of the Phoenix Art Museum. His Phoenix murals were in the Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Papago Park and in some of them, he depicted nude figures, which artist David Swing later painted over because they were thought to be offensive to tubercular patients.