Sidney Simon was born in 1917 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after his Polish father and Lithuanian mother had moved to the United States. His interest in art started at an early age, and by the time he was fourteen years old, he received a scholarship to study sculpture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology as a special student. Simon then attended the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1936, winning the Prix de Rome Collaborative Prize in 1939 and the Emil Cresson Traveling Fellowship in 1940. He graduated in 1941, earning a bachelor of fine arts from both institutions. Simon enlisted in the war that same year and was tasked with developing the Morale Division, which worked on improving the Engineer’s Replacement Training Center in Fort Belvoir, Virginia through the creation of murals and canvases. He was named captain of the Army Corps of Engineers in 1943 and helped organize war artists while producing a large number of personal sketches and paintings about life as a soldier. Through the Morale Division Simon became acquainted with Willard W. Cummings, with whom he later co-founded the Skowhegan School of Art in 1946. After founding and teaching at the school, Simon became more immersed in the world of sculpture and started producing works in bronze, terra cotta, and clay. He taught at Skowhegan, Cooper Union, Columbia University, and the Art Students League in New York. Simon continued his artistic practice until his death in 1997 in Truro, Massachusetts.
—Layla Faragallah
- Archives of American Art. “Sidney Simon Papers, Circa 1917–2002, Bulk 1940-1997.
- Dobrzynski, Judith H. “Sidney Simon, Sculptor, 80; Founded School.” New York Times 8 August 1997.
- Hagy, Robert R. “Art Finds A Place in Soldier’s Lives.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 7 July 1942.
- Sidney Simon.
- Wikipedia. “Sidney Simon.”