1918-2000
Theme/Style – Modernism, abstraction, landscape, cityscape
Media – Oils, acrylics, watercolor, collage, serigraphs, collagraphs, etchings
Artistic Focus – Ginger Osgood worked in many media, but she is best known for her work in serigraphy, a refinement of the commercial silk-screen printing process, in which all the work is done completely by hand. Osgood and her husband, R. Freeman Worthley, are considered to be not only pioneers in the advancement of this process, but masters of the medium. Osgood also created collagraphs, original prints pulled from plates on whose surface is a collage of textured materials, resulting in an embossed image. Her works in these media are widely thought of as among the best examples of serigraphs and collagraphs in existence. Beyond their testament to Osgood’s technical expertise, they glow with her intelligence, enthusiasm, and joy in her chosen form of self-expression.
Career Highlights –
- Born in Yokohama, Japan in 1918, Ginger Osgood studied at the Art Students League in New York, and in Los Angeles at UCLA, the Jepson Art Institute, and Otis Art Institute (then called the Los Angeles County Art Institute), where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1958.
- Osgood and her husband, R. Freeman Worthley, helped develop the art form known as serigraphy, and Osgood served as exhibition director and vice-president of Los Angeles’s Western Serigraph Institute (Thousand Oaks), an organization comprising members from both the U.S. and Mexico. Osgood and Worthley lectured on serigraphy and set up Western Serigraph Institute exhibitions at venues across the U.S. from the 1950s through the 1970s.
- Osgood exhibited her serigraph Gower Street in an exhibition at Brookings Hall in St. Louis in 1955, along with another serigraph pioneer, Guy Maccoy, and others. She also exhibited her serigraphs in group shows at The Contemporary Shop in Chicago, IL in 1962 and at The Gallery in Burlingame, CA in 1964; and Osgood and Worthley had a two-person show at the Bennett Gallery, Thousand Oaks, in 1965.
- Osgood was included in the exhibition called “City Graphics” at the Pictures for Business Corporation in New York in 1968. There was a solo show of her collagraphs at Norton’s Fine Art Studios in St. Louis, MO in 1979; and a solo show of her paintings and serigraphs at Moorpark College, CA in 1988. A show called “Evolutionary Art,” featuring the work of Osgood and Worthley, was held at the Conejo Valley Art Museum in Thousand Oaks in 1988.
- Throughout their careers, Osgood and Worthley were active in local art associations around Los Angeles. They were guest teachers at the Palos Verdes Art Association in 1964, and Osgood was Arts Commissioner for the Ventura County Arts Council, as well as president of the Thousand Oaks Art Association in 1972-1973, exhibiting with the group in the 1970s. In 1974, Osgood and Worthley received an award from the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce for their contributions to Thousand Oaks community affairs.
- Osgood was Exhibit Director of the Conejo Valley Art Museum, Thousand Oaks from1985 to 1992. She was commissioned to create the city’s 1986 Oakleaf Music Festival Poster, and was co-curator of the Festival of Western Films at the Conejo Valley Art Museum in 1987.
- Osgood also did design work, including wrought iron gates, a cast-stone monument, and a sculptural mosaic fountain at locations in Westlake Village, and 15 stoneware symbols of the “Way of the Cross” for St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Thousand Oaks.
- Osgood was a member of Women Painters of the West, and her work is represented in print collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; and others.
- Ginger Osgood passed away in Torrance, California in 2000.
Selection of Works by this Artist
Bibliographic references are available upon request.