Emil Armin

[6] Art critic Samuel Putnam, of the Chicago Evening Post, described Armin as "perhaps the most finely sensitized artist in Chicago…with a soul of a peasant and poet and the mind of a philosopher.

[7] Armin began drawing at the age of five and presumably learned woodcarving from his father, Hirsch Lieb,[8]: 41  who was an amateur artist.

[8]: 55 In 1905, Armin emigrated to the United States, to join his siblings Sigmund and Frieda in Chicago, where he continued to draw sketches whenever he could while unhappily working in a wealthy cousin's store.

[10] Other instructors included Enella Benedict, Albert Henry Krehbiel,[8]: 69  Antonin Sterba,[8]: 76  John W. Norton and Harry L.

[12] In his work, Armin synthesized contemporary artistic trends with inspiration drawn from his Jewish roots and from the peasant traditions of the American Southwest and his native Eastern Europe.

After finishing his studies, Armin joined a group of artists, including Gertrude Abercrombie, Francis Strain and Charles Biesel, at the 57th Street Art Colony in Hyde Park, near Stony island Avenue,[14] where he lived and worked until 1925.

[8]: 101 ) Armin then shared an art studio with fellow modernist Todros Geller at 59 East Adams[16] from 1926 to 1930.

"[8]: 12 Following his graduation in 1920, Armin became an active member in Chicago's emerging modernist art community,[4] which emphasized freedom of individual expression as its sole doctrine.

"[19]) In 1913, Armin had visited the controversial Armory Show when it was exhibited at the Art Institute, and he fell under the sway of European and American modernism.

[22] In 1945, at the age of 65, Armin married Hilda Rose Diamond, a social worker for the Jewish Family and Community Service in Chicago.