Irving Kriesberg

Irving Kriesberg, who died in New York City on 11 November aged 90, was an American painter who combined intense abstract colours with human and animal elements.

Kriesberg's works appear in many major museums in the US, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington. The Chicago-born artist also taught at Yale, Columbia and Pratt Institute. In the 1940s, he applied for a job as lighting designer of the Times Square "Wondersign" billboard. For his audition, he created an illuminated Frank Sinatra, and got the job.