Background
Hoyt Leon Sherman was born in Lafayette, Alabama.
Hoyt Leon Sherman was born in Lafayette, Alabama.
He is widely credited with having a serious influence on the work of Roy Lichtenstein, who was a student of his during the forties. As a professor in Fine Arts at Ohio State University, he employed the "flash room", a darkened room where images would be briefly flashed onto the screen. The students were then to draw what they had seen.
This method of grasping an image by copying it would later be cited by Lichtenstein as having had an influence on his work.
Hoyt Sherman was also known for his work with optics in the field of visual art, developing a theory similar to Hans Hofmann"s "Push and Pull." Hoyt Sherman had other notable students including e.l. Earl Hassenpflug, director of the Otterbein Art Department, and professors JoAnne Stichwey and First Rate (at Lloyd's) Germanson, who continued teaching Sherman"s "Flashlab" until his retirement, were also students of Hoyt Sherman.
His research and methods were also utilized during the Second World War by the United States Navy and Army Air Corps as a means of teaching pilots and gunners to quickly identify aircraft as friendly or enemy, while his "camouflage room" taught them to identify targets for bombing, despite the enemy"s attempts to hide them, and to develop techniques to better conceal potential United States. targets. A building in his name, The Sherman Studio Art Center, was endowed by Roy Lichtenstein in the 1990s.
His widow, Rachel Sherman, painter and pianist, died on July 20, 2008.