Francis Joseph Quirk (June 3, 1907 – February 5, 1974) was an American artist, educator, museum curator, and TV personality.
[1] He is best known for his paintings of Edgar Lee Masters and Carl Sandburg, as well as his affiliation with Lehigh University as a professor and curator.
[11] He also won the Juror's Prize at the Providence Art Club's Annual Exhibition with his painting of Scott Adams III.
[citation needed] In 1940, Quirk exhibited a painting of him and his wife attending a concert at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.
[citation needed] Towards the end of Quirk's tenure at Ogontz he also was a Professor of Contemporary Perspective at Philadelphia's Hussian School of Art.
He taught there from 1948 to 1950, shortly after the school's founding by John Hussian in 1946 with the support of principals at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
1950 was a landmark year for Quirk as he made a major transition to the all-male Lehigh University where he took over from Garth Howland as in the Fine Art Department and Director of Exhibits.
Second, he created better display spaces and finally he began its expansion through donations from prominent alumni such as Ralph Wilson[18] of the Timken Company and Eugene Grace of Bethlehem Steel and through borrowing.
Quirk experimented in cubism, but largely remained true to a realistic style of portraiture and marine subjects.
[citation needed] In the media, Quirk also hosted television programs "Art as We See It" and "It's Happening There" that were broadcast on Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Station, WGPA.
He named the Pine Drive home Peterspen and was active in the Mountain Club community teaching art classes.