Burr Lee Singer

Bernice “Burr” Lee Singer was a painter active in Missouri in the 1930s. She was born on November 20, 1912, in St. Louis. Singer studied painting at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Art Students League in New York, and later studied with Walter Ufer in Taos, New Mexico, for several years.

Singer traveled often and made several trips to Mexico. This experience left an impression on her, and she began to focus on scenes from her travel in her paintings. Her work has been characterized as Realist and often engaged social themes, depicting laborers, workers and minorities.

Singer was a member of the St. Louis Independent Artists and American Artists’ Congress, and exhibited frequently with the St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her works were included in exhibits at the City Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Denver Art Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Art, Kansas City Art Institute, and the New York World’s Fair and Golden Gate International Exposition, both in 1939. She also frequently exhibited at the politically active Vanguard Gallery in St. Louis.

Singer married her childhood sweetheart, Harry Friedman, and they relocated to California in 1939. Singer remained active and served as vice president of the California Watercolor Society in 1958. A number of her works were shown in an exhibition of prints at the Library of Congress in 1983. Singer died in Los Angeles on November 18, 1992.