Frederick O’Hara
(1904 - 1980)
Originally from Canada, Frederick O’Hara immigrated to the United States with his family in 1918. Based in Boston, O’Hara studied in Europe between the wars and served as director of the Santa Barbara School of Fine Arts in California from 1937 to ’39 before relocating to New Mexico in 1941.
Primarily a painter in his earlier career, O’Hara’s interest in printmaking was stimulated by the influential Latvian graphic artist Adja Yunkers, whom he met in Albuquerque. In 1960, O’Hara received a fellowship to work at the newly-formed Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles (initially based in a studio on Tamarind Avenue, Hollywood, hence the name). The Tamarind Institute, as it is now known, formally relocated to Albuquerque in 1970 and became a division of the University of New Mexico’s College of Fine Arts.
O’Hara’s prints typically integrated abstract and figurative elements, often based upon prehistoric and ceremonial imagery from the Southwest.
Primarily a painter in his earlier career, O’Hara’s interest in printmaking was stimulated by the influential Latvian graphic artist Adja Yunkers, whom he met in Albuquerque. In 1960, O’Hara received a fellowship to work at the newly-formed Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles (initially based in a studio on Tamarind Avenue, Hollywood, hence the name). The Tamarind Institute, as it is now known, formally relocated to Albuquerque in 1970 and became a division of the University of New Mexico’s College of Fine Arts.
O’Hara’s prints typically integrated abstract and figurative elements, often based upon prehistoric and ceremonial imagery from the Southwest.