Ethel Magafan

Who is Ethel Magafan?

Ethel Magafan was an American painter.

Magafan was born in Chicago, Illinois. Raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she studied at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center with Frank Mechau, Boardman Robinson, and Peppino Mangravite, and was a member of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Ethel and her twin sister, Jenne, became widely known for their murals painted during the Great Depression. In the 1930s, Ethel received her first of seven Government commissions when she was commissioned to produce a painting for the US Post Office in Auburn, Nebraska. Other paintings commissioned by the US Government hang in the United States Senate Chamber, the Social Security Building and the Recorder Deeds Building in Washington D.C., and in U.S. Post Offices in Wynne, Arkansas; Mudill, Oklahoma; and Denver, Colorado.

Magafan died in 1993.