Viola Patterson

Though she was interested in art early on, painter Viola Patterson did not take a formal class until she was working on a Master’s program in librarianship at the University of Washington in 1921. The professor of her drawing class was Ambrose Patterson who had founded the art department at UW. He inspired her to begin painting and they later married. He had trained abroad and stayed connected with a number of prominent modernist artists. Viola met and studied with many important figures including Diego Rivera, Amedee Ozenfant, Alexander Archipenko and Andre L’Hote. She showed her work in exhibitions in Washington, Oregon, and New York. She also taught children’s art classes at the University of Washington and Seattle Art Museum from 1947 to 1966. The Henry Art Gallery hosted a retrospective of her work in 1968.

In 1982, Viola Patterson was interviewed for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution and that interview, which offers an extensive overview of her life and career, can be accessed at https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-viola-patterson-12618