Millard Owen Sheets

Millard Sheets was one of California’s leading painters and a nationally recognized figure by the 1930s. By 1935 he had already exhibited in twenty-seven museums across the country, prompting one New York critic to headline a review of his debut “A Name to Remember.” During the Depression, his work with the Public Works of Art Project broadened his exposure and helped solidify his reputation. In World War II he served as a correspondent for Life magazine in India and Burma, and the famine and devastation he witnessed introduced a darker, more somber tone to his paintings for more than a decade. After returning to the United States, Sheets became president of the California watercolor society and continued to expand his practice, working in both watercolor and oil. Today, his paintings are held in major institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Gallery of Art.