Birney Quick was born in Proctor, Minnesota in 1912 and grew up in Duluth. He studied at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston and graduated in 1934. Quick exhibited regularly on the east coast before returning to Duluth in 1937. He shared studio space with artist Knute Heldner and taught at the Duluth Art Institute and the College of St. Scholastica.
Quick joined the Army Air Corps in June 1943. Assigned as an air corps artist, he spent part of his tour of duty painting a series of murals at the Keesler Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. After World War II, he returned to Minnesota and taught at the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) from 1946-78. Quick, along with fellow artist Bryon Bradley, founded the Grand Marais Art Colony.
Over his lengthy career, Quick had a number of one-person exhibitions and also completed a number of commissions, including murals created for the Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company and St. John's Catholic Church in Grand Marais. A prolific artist, Quick produced over 10,000 works during his lifetime. Quick died in 1981.
Creator: Birney Quick
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
Date: 1940
Identifer: location AV1995.4
