This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Born Irene Bianucci in Leucca Italy, December 16, 1903, Irene Soravia emigrated to the United States in 1909, where her parents settled in Chicago. She became a U.S. citizen in 1916. She attended Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois (1923-1925), where she won the Anna Bachman Mueller prize. She later studied at the Chicago Art Institute, where her most influential teachers were Boris Anisfield, George Oberteuffer, and John W. Norton. She was invited to exhibit her paintings at the Chicago Art Institute, and won the Louis Comfort Tiffany fellowship to continue her work in New York at the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. While studying at the Chicago Art Institute, she also won the Union League Club prize in 1930.
A “New Deal” artist employed on the Federal Art Project from 1936 to 1940, Irene Soravia painted WPA murals for several public buildings, and notably an oil on canvas mural for the Mount Carroll, Illinois, Post Office titled Rural Scenes - Wakarusa Valley.
During World War II, Soravia was an illustrator and designer for the Container Corporation of America.
In 1940, Irene Soravia met her husband, Roy Soravia, the original owner of Chicago’s Parnassus Gallery, in Chicago, and moved with him to La Jolla California in 1949.
Her paintings have been exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute (1932-1941); the Riverside Museum in New York (1941); Chicago International Watercolor Show; The Parnassus Gallery, Chicago (1940); America Fore Gallery (1937-1941); Chicago Navy Pier 4th Annual Exhibit (194 0); The Chicago College Club; The Findlay Galleries, Chicago (51st, 53rd, and 54th Annual Exhibitions); The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago (1931); The Chicago Society of Artists (1941); Mandel Brothers Art Gallery, Chicago; La Jolla Museum Invitational Exhibit; Los Angeles County Museum; La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art; San Diego Fine Arts Gallery; San Diego Art Guild; Davenport Museum, Iowa; The UCSD Gallery of Art; The Athenum, La Jolla, California; and at the Coronado School of Fine Arts.
She was a member of the San Diego Art Guild
Irene Bianucci Soravia was is listed in Bowker’s Who’s Who in American Art, volumes 3 and 5 (1940-41 & 1953), and in Falk’s Who Was Who in American Art.
Irene Soravia’s paintings are in the permanent collection of the University of California at San Diego. She died in Leucadia, California, in 1988.
Written and submitted by Rene Ruffner
Sources include Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art; Clipppings and Notes provided by Luis Santana of the University of California at San Diego.
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