David McCosh regularly exhibited his work in one-man shows, group exhibitions, juried competitions, and regional and national invitationals. This abbreviated chronology lists notable teaching appointments, travels, sabbaticals, public murals, and publications.
July 11, 1903
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1922–1923
Pursues undergraduate studies at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1923–1926
Pursues undergraduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC)
1927
Spends the summer in Wyoming on a painting trip
1927–1929
Pursues graduate studies at the AIC, during which he spends eight months in Europe on a John Quincy Adams Scholarship for Foreign Travel
1930
Receives Tiffany Foundation Fellowship to spend the summer painting at Oyster Bay, Long Island, where he meets Anne Kutka (1902-1994); works with master printmaker Bolton Brown in Chicago
1931
Rooms with Herbert Ferber Silvers in New York City in the winter and spends the summer working in Grant Arnold’s lithography studio in Woodstock, New York
1932
Serves as director and instructor at the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery in Davenport, spends the summer teaching at Grant Wood’s Stone City Art Colony, and begins teaching lithography at the AIC
1933
Paints mural in the Hall of Social Science for “A Century of Progress” International Exposition in Chicago; resumes teaching position at Stone City Art Colony in the summer
1934
Spends March and April at Camp Chicago Lemont in Willow Springs, Illinois, documenting the Civilian Conservation Corps workers; begins exhibiting at the Ferargil Gallery and then at the Maynard Walker Galleries in New York City; marries Anne Kutka in Santa Fe; moves to Eugene in November to begin teaching at the University of Oregon
1935
Morning Exercise, an oil painting, is reproduced in the August issue of Art Digest
1936
Spends time painting in Saugatuck, Michigan, where Francis Chapin was teaching at the AIC’s summer school; McCosh would spend several more summers there in the
following years
1937
Teaches summer courses at the AIC; “A Critical Appreciation of Iowa Painter David J. McCosh” by Edward Beatty Rowan and a reproduction of I’ve Got a Toothache, a drawing, are printed in Magazine of Art
1938
Installs Incidents in the Lives of Lewis and Clark mural in the post office in Kelso, Washington, as a Works Progress Administration commission; Mill Race, an oil painting, is reproduced on the title page of Art News
1939
January, Oregon, a watercolor painting, is reproduced in American Painting Today by the American Federation of Arts
1940
Installs two Themes of the National Parks murals for the National Parks Service in the Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
1942
Installs Spirit of Beresford mural in the post office in Beresford, South Dakota, as a Works Progress Administration commission; Logged Off, a watercolor painting, is reproduced in Fortune magazine
1947
Teaches at Montana State University in Bozeman during the summer
1949
Takes a sabbatical leave from the University of Oregon for one academic year to paint at Cohasset Beach, Washington, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and New Mexico
1954
Elected member of the American Watercolor Society and is made full professor of art at the University of Oregon
1956
Teaches painting workshop in Klamath Falls, Oregon
1957
Serves as guest artist at San Jose State College, California, during the summer
1958
Takes a sabbatical leave from the University of Oregon to paint in England, France, Italy, Morocco, and Spain
1962
Illustrates Ernest G. Moll’s poem “The Lightless Ferry” for publication in The Rainbow Serpent and Other Poems
1965
Takes a sabbatical leave from the University of Oregon to paint in New Mexico and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico City, and the Yucatan
1970
Retires from teaching as professor emeritus
July 25, 1981
Dies in Eugene, Oregon, at age 78
