American war bond propaganda poster featuring a paratrooper jumping from a plane by Harold Lehman

Harold Lehman (1913-2006) was born in New York City, New York to Abraham and Rochel Lehman, Jewish immigrants from Europe who arrived in New York at the turn of the twentieth century. Harold was one of five children and had a twin brother. The family lived in Manhattan, and then in the Bronx. Early on, Harold’s father struggled to find consistent employment, working various jobs, including as a vaudeville dancer. He abandoned the family and moved to California, where he later found steady work as an insurance agent. Harold’s mother was a seamstress and unable to support the family by herself, so she placed Harold and his two brothers in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. In February 1929, having aged out of the orphanage, Harold and his older brother, Charlie, moved to Los Angeles, California to reunite with their father.

Harold continued his studies in art by enrolling in Manual Arts High School. There he formed lifelong friendships with future notable artists such as Philip Guston (formerly Phillip Goldstein), Jackson Pollock, and Manuel Tolegian. Early in his art career, Harold worked primarily as a sculptor. He used plaster and clay as well as carving directly in stone. In 1930, after graduating from Manual Arts, Lehman won a citywide competition for a yearlong scholarship to the Otis Art Institute. In 1932, after leaving Otis, Harold focused on painting and began working with the Mexican muralist, David Alfaro Siqueiros. He was invited by Siqueiros to join the “Bloc of Painters,” a group of artists with socialist leanings, who were committed to using art to decry matters of social injustice of the time. The fresco murals created by this group were destroyed by the Los Angeles Red Squad. In 1933, Harold began working with Lorser Feitelson and exhibited with his group of Post Surrealist painters. He won professional recognition for his work and several awards between 1934-35 in the Los Angeles Museum’s annual competition of painters and sculptors. In 1934, together with Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish, they received a commission to do a mural under the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the first New Deal Federal Art Project to employ artists.

In 1935, Harold returned to New York City. He helped Siqueiros create the Siqueiros Experimental Workshop, which was dedicated to using revolutionary methods and techniques. He began experimenting with different types of paints, lacquers and application methods. The Workshop created floats and large-scale work opposing the rise and spread of fascism in Europe. In 1936 and 1937, Harold created paintings opposing the Fascists and the German and Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, Harold painted a mural for the World’s Fair in New York. While working with Siqueiros, Harold also designed floats for several New York City parades promoting the Allied war effort and denouncing fascism.

In the fall of 1941, Harold fell while painting a mural and broke both his arms, which granted him a deferral from serving in World War II. He moved to Woodstock, NY to recuperate. While there, he created several war paintings for the Section of Fine Arts and the Treasury Department. Around this time, Harold was approached by Arnold Blanch and Reeves Lewenthal from the Associated American Artist Gallery. Through a partnership with Associated American Artists, the United States Treasury Department, and Abbott Laboratories a program was developed to create advertisements and illustrations for its medical journal What’s New and for the United States Government’s War Department through their School-At-War program. Using themes he was given, Harold created several posters through the auspices of the Treasury Department, which were successfully published nationwide. In 1943, two of Harold’s war posters were featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s Artists for Victory exhibit. In 1944, in response to the revelation of the atrocities of the Holocaust, before there were eyewitness accounts, Harold envisioned and drew pictures depicting the torturous conditions of prisoners in the concentration camps.

In 1946, Harold left Woodstock and returned to New York City. He continued easel painting, sculpting, and photography. He also began teaching art from his studio on West 21st Street. In 1950, Lehman met Leona Koutras, who had come to his studio for art lessons. Two years later they married and had two children. In the 1960s, Harold worked as a lead scenic artist for the 1965 New York World’s Fair and later for Expo ’67 in Montreal. In the 1970s he worked as a scenic designer and scenic artist in commercials, film, and television.