Louis Oscar Griffith (hereafter L.O.) was a printmaker and impressionist painter with a strong tie to the Hoosier state. Griffith was born in Greencastle, Indiana, moved to Texas at four or five (age is disputed by sources), and trained in Chicago (Art Institute) and St. Louis, and was able to explore much of the landscape of the Midwest, west Texas, as well as Maine, Louisiana, Mexico, England, and France. In 1922, Griffith was recently married and exhausted with commercial work and relocated to his home state, settling in Nashville, Indiana.
While in Nashville, Griffith converted an old creamery into a studio and also was a charter member of the Brown County Art Gallery Association and Brown County Art Guild (unfamiliar readers should note that this region of Indiana is very artistically significant). Griffith was known for delicate and multed palettes which were often referred to as “tone poems imbued with atmospheric mystery” (Madron Gallery). This source also discusses Griffith as an exacting perfectionist–focusing and “toiling” for hours over small details in his work.
A feature in Our Brown County by Joanne Nesbit confirms Griffith’s exacting nature: that he rose every day at 6am and spent many hours in his studio, working quietly. L.O. was noted to be so quiet that he often was mistaken for the town watchmaker rather than a scenic artist and powerful artistic force in the area’s early history and founding.
Per the feature, Griffith once said “Brown County is conducive to thought and work.” He would continue to paint in Indiana for 50 years, leaving each winter to spend some time in Dallas, avoiding the harsh winters.
L.O. was nationally renowned for his skill–having received a bronze medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Expo in San Francisco, an exhibition in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1921 (one year before settling in Nashville), as well as a Smithsonian Exhibition in 1945 that featured his prints. There are, currently, two works by Griffith in the O’Neill School; however, there are innumerable L.O. Griffiths around the Indiana University system and in the Campus Art archives.
Leave a Reply