Sinai Desert

Agnes Mills

Agnes Mills’ artistic career was among the most prolific for her time and peer group, having been a woman - and the youngest instructor - in the WPA in the 1930s. By the time she created “Sinai Desert” she had a long list of exhibitions and collaborations behind her, and she had made her mark as one of the leading viscosity printmakers of the mid 20th century, a technique she learned studying at Atelier 17 in New York. In this image the breadth of her expertise is on display, capturing the essence of the Sinai Peninsula’s arid central landscape with her use of deep texture on the plate and the layering of bright colors.

The Sinai Peninsula, which forms a land bridge between Asia and Africa, is a unique map of Egypt’s varied climates, bordered on the sides by the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, its head crowned by the Meditteranean Sea, its point dipping into the Red Sea. Its central landmass sweeps upward into mountainous terrain, where it features some of the coldest temperatures in all of Egypt in winter, often reaching 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet, along its shores are coral reefs rich with marine life and temperate waters, attracting visitors from around the world.

Painter, printmaker, and sculptor Agnes Eunice Mills was born in New York City in 1915. A prolific multi-disciplinary arts, she specialized in dance subjects and imagery pertaining to the arts. She worked in the Long Island/New York City area for most of her career, eventually moving to Florida.

Mills was a graduate of Pratt Institute and Cooper Union Art School, and was associated with the Bauhaus, Social Realist, and Abstract movements. She worked for the WPA early in her career, becoming the youngest instructor in the Federal Arts Project along with fellow artist Ruth Gikow. She studied under Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, David Siqueiros, Hans Hoffman, Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in New York, Krishna Reddy, and many other leading printmakers and painters of the time.

For 25 years she served as resident artist for the Alwin Nikolais Dance Company, and several other dance companies hired her to sketch their rehearsals. She was a member of the Artists Union and was Co-Chair for the committee for public use of art. She published the Index of American Design for the Library of Congress.