Archie Leroy Musick – Artist Bio

in Artist, Musick, Archie Leroy

(1902-1978)
Colorado, Mural Painting, Illustrator 

Archie Musick was an American painter. He studied under Thomas Hart Benton, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, and Boardman Robinson. 

His first major mural was sponsored by the Public Works of Art Project and may be seen at Colorado Springs, CO, where for many years he was the art instructor at Cheyenne Mountain High School. Musick’s works can be seen as well In the Red Cloud, NE Post Office, the Manitou Springs, CO Post Office, and also at his alma mater, Truman State University (BS, then Northeast Missouri State Teachers’ College). He was commissioned by the class of 1928 to paint the snow-covered ruins of Old Baldwin Hall, destroyed in a 1924 fire. He described his first two mural commissions as “scenic pot-boilers on restaurant walls, (which) were happily destroyed by fire.” He spent most of his career in Colorado, with a year (1946-1947) teaching at the University of Missouri and several years after that teaching at another Missouri university. 

His book, Musick Medley: Intimate Memories of a Rocky Mountain Art Colony, is a personal view of the art world of the Colorado Springs region from the 1920’s to the 1950’s, including the Broadmoor Art Academy and Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. 

He was the brother of author and folklorist Ruth Ann Musick, and illustrated her collections The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales, Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales, and Green Hills of Magic: West Virginia Folktales from Europe.  Many of the original ink board illustrations from these publications are within the archives of Fairmont State University’s West Virginia Folklife Center. A colorized mural of these illustrations is on exhibit for public viewing in the foyer of the Ruth Ann Musick Library on the main campus.