Bio

Jay Meuser
American Abstract Expressionist Painter

Artist Jay Meuser was born in San Francisco in 1911 and passed away in San Pedro, California in 1963. 

Besides teaching at the Art School in San Francisco, he was also a vaudeville performer, a sailor who twice worked around the world, and was described as "..... more than a fair boxer" in newspaper articles.  He earned 14 different law enforcement badges and became, by the age of 31, the youngest chief of police in Marin County, California.  When he relocated to San Pedro at the end of World War II, he worked at the Terminal Island Naval Shipyard and was a member of the Sheet Metal Workers International.

Artist Jay Meuser painted many 20th century leading political personalities, including Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.  His portrait President Roosevelt hung in the White House.  The portraits of presidents Kennedy and Nixon are currently in the permanent collections of the respective Presidential Libraries in Boston, Massachusetts and Yorba Linda, California.

By 1949, artist Jay Meuser began devoting his life to painting full time.  While his earlier art works were depicted in realistic terms, representational art, by the   early 1950's he became wholly immersed in abstract art, for which he became well established.  The vast majority of his artwork was created between 1949 and 1957, and the quality of his work, as well as the quantity, during this period was significant.  His abstract work "Northward" was requested by the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1953 and remains in the museum's permanent collection as Abstract Expressionism.

In 1953, he became President of the San Pedro Art Association; by 1955, he was elected as a member of the prestigious California Water Color Society (currently the National Watercolor Society.)  He participated and won awards in numerous major exhibitions across the country.

On the 100th anniversary of his birth, a bronze plaque was dedicated in his honor.  This plaque is located in the heart of the San Pedro Art Walk district on 7th Street.  It is there to celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of the American expressionist artist.  On this day, the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles and the State of California honored Jay Meuser's family with Certificates of Tribute, Recognition and Commendation.