Featured 1953 Damshka MacDavid Figural Oil Painting on Board

I purchased this painting at an estate sale last week. It is oil on hardboard. The only additional information I was able to find was in the 1953 Long Beach phone book. I found a listing for a Mrs. Pamela MacDavid, her profession was listed as artist. I have not been able to find much else, just a computer generated obituary. I would also like some help with the ethnicity of the person in the painting, maybe North Africa?

 

Agree, North Africa, Berber.

 

Yep. And isn't she nice? Original frame and all.

Debora

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30306278/independent/

Read the OCR text ...
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/19206935/

 

Thanks! I’m glad you found that, I wasn’t having any luck.

 

I found a newspaper article with a photo of her holding one of her paintings. Of course from a newspaper, it is not very clear. Let's see if I can upload it here. I did not manage to get the entire article in the right-hand column copied.




This is from the Independent Press Telegram, Long Beach, 14 March 1952. I see from other sources that she was born Pamela Kirkman in 1921, and died in 1981 or 1982.

There are also several articles in that newspaper in the 1950s, mostly mentioning art classes she was teaching.

 

She's in the right place and the right time, but is she the right person? I'm seeing more of Ben Shahn than Renoir in this work.

 

That’s cool, it is always nice to put a face to the name. Seems like she was really active in the art scene.

 

Good question. The note on the back says the artist was "Damshka MacDavid" so there is that difference in the name. But how many artists named MacDavid were working in Long Beach, California in the early 1950s, I wonder? I had thought Damshka was somehow a misreading of Pamela.

 

Google translates Damshka as damask and the language as Hausa, a people in Northwestern Nigeria and Southern Niger. Don't know if any of that has anything to do with anything.

For all that matter, could have been someone else in the same family. Maybe it was just a beatnik handle.

 

Might be a childhood nickname. From a sibling who couldn't pronounce "Pamela."

Debora