About Nelbert Chouinard

Nelbert Chouinard, Chouinard House, 1932

Nelbert Chouinard was born Nellie Murphy on February 9, 1879 in Montevideo, Minnesota. Somewhat Victorian in her ways it is said that she adopted the name Nelbert by combining her name with her Uncle Bert's in order to distance herself from a Chicago club dancer at the time, also named Nellie Murphy. She married Horace Chouinard on April 15, 1915 who died only 2 1/2 years into the marriage. She never re-married, keeping his name through her life.

Nelbert Chouinard was first a painter, and attained her degree in fine art from the Pratt Institute in N.Y. This was a highly unusual thing in those days - for a young woman to travel to NY in order to study art. It speaks of a woman of unusual committment and tenacity and one very willing to break rules as necessary in order to achieve what is necessary in her view.

Moving to South Pasadena, California after her husband's death, she became an influential member of the Eucalyptus School, painting numerous images of the California landscape at that time. But it was in the teaching of art that Nelbert found her calling. She taught art at Hollywood Highschool, Throop Polytechnic in Pasadena with Earnest Batchelder, and most notably, at Otis in Los Angeles. It was here that she was spurred on to start her own school, due to the overcrowded conditions at Otis. She was encouraged to do so by the Dean of Otis at the time who felt strongly that LA needed more art schools. Thus, in 1921, the Chouinard School of Art began in a two story house on 8th Street in the Westlake area near downtown LA.

Basing her curriculum on the cornerstones of drawing, painting and design, the school exploded into one of the most highly regarded art schools of it's time. This reputation only grew and in 1929, the school moved into it's permanent home on Grandview St in Westlake. The 17,000 square foot building was designed by her with the architects as an art school and would be the center of many of the art movements emanating from LA until 1972 when it was closed.

Nelbert Chouinard was known to be a woman of great will and passion concerning the subject of art. Her approach and committment to the idea of drawing as a primary philosophy as well as an artmaking necessity revolutionized the subject on the West Coast and beyond. This committment was the thread which linked all the eras and art movements threading through Chouinard for over 50 years.

To this day, that commitment is echoed by the new Chouinard's principle of "Draw The Idea" as an operating philosophy. When one views the massive influence across all visual art disciplines throughout the world which Nelbert Chouinard and her school created, one is confronted with the fact that Nelbert Chouinard was one of the great visionaries of the 20th century.