Gordon Kenneth Grant (January 21, 1908March 1, 1940) was an American artist. He is best remembered today for his New Deal murals commissioned for the post offices in Brady, Texas,[1] Alhambra, California and Ventura, California.[2]
Born in Oakland, Grant was a graduate of Stanford University.[3] He was a nephew of maritime artist Gordon Grant. His brother Campbell Grant worked for Walt Disney.[4] In the 1930s he worked on murals at Wellesley College and at the Bronx city hall.[5] In 1936 he exhibited paintings in Washington, D.C. on "Indian subjects" including an image of a Hopi eagle dance.[6]
He died in 1940 in a cannon explosion on the Montecito, California estate of George F. Steedman, supposedly accidentally ignited by Grant's lit cigarette.[7] He was working for Steedman as a silversmith.[8] In addition to painting and silversmithing, Gordon was considered an expert on the artwork of Native American tribes of southwestern North America.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art hosted a retrospective exhibit of his work in 2001.[9]