Young, Joseph, 1919-2007

Joseph Louis Young (1919-2007) was an American artist and architect. Born in Pittsburgh, he studied art, literature and journalism at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, earning his D. Litt. in 1960. He served in the Army Air Force, where he wrote articles and drew cartoons; after ending his military service he took art classes at several schools including Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He married pianist Millicent Goldstein, with whom he had two children, in 1949, and in 1951 both won fellowships in their respective fields to the American Academy in Rome.

Young's favorite medium was murals, and he created dozens of sculptures, glass mosaic murals and cast-concrete pieces for buildings in and around Los Angeles, where he and his wife lived for many years. His work may also be see in true fresco, oil and mural in Boston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.

In addition to his artistic endeavors, Young worked for newspapers in Pittsburgh and New York City (1941-1943), lectured at Tufts University (1949), taught painting at Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. He founded the Joseph Young Mosaic Workshop and co-founded Creative Arts magazine, and is the author of A Course in Making Mosaics (1957) and Mosaics: Principles and Practice (1963). He was guest lecturer in universities in Rome, Venice and Florence, and his work was featured in the film World of Mosaic .