[4] Arthur had been taught painting for three years by abstract expressionist artist Arshile Gorky at the Grand Central School of Art, from 1927 until 1929.
[9][10] Originally relying on more traditional themes, Arthur's art became significantly more abstract by the early 1950s, with many pieces being influenced by space travel, technology, and the Cold War.
[12] In the 1953 review, there was an abrupt change in Arthur's painting style, with a push towards flattened abstraction.
[13] Arthur and Miriam Broudy were the co-founders of the New England and National Print Show (now called the Art of the Northeast) at Silvermine Guild of Artists in 1949 in New Canaan, Connecticut.
His students included psychiatrist Karl Menninger, Joan Seiler, Clifford Davis, Vadim Filimonov, Thorton W. Whipple,[22] Herb Jackson,[23] and Anthony H.