Born in Vienna, Austria, artist Eva Cockcroft (1939-1999) fled to the United States as an infant to escape the Nazi regime. She studied art history at Rutgers University and English at Cornell University in New York. In 1972, Cockcroft began painting murals in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Berlin, Long Beach, New York City, New Jersey, and Nicaragua that depicted social themes for the public. While her art carried some political meaning, Cockcroft insisted that the sole purpose of her murals was to create beauty and identity within a community. Her murals include La Grande Jatte in Harlem (1986), Earth Memory (1996) and Homage to Siqueiros (1998).
She also coauthored the book Toward a People’s Art: The Contemporary Mural Movement (1972), wrote for several art journals, and taught art and art history at California State University, Long Beach and University of California Irvine. She lived primarily in Venice, CA until her death in 1999.
