The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Edward Goodman (c1908-????) began his art education as a young boy in Russia, studying at the Art League of Moscow under Jacob Epstein and Marc Chagall. After coming to Pittsburgh in the mid-1920s, he studied under Samuel Rosenberg, William Shulgold, and Frank Vittor at the Isaac Seder Educational Center of the YM&WHA.
Goodman joined the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh in the late 1920s and began exhibiting around the city, including shows at the Gulf Building, the Bessemer Gallery, the Irene Kaufmann Settlement, and other venues. He made a living working as a huckster during the day and working nights as a bus boy in restaurants, painting in spare moments between these jobs. He joined the Works Progress Administration in 1937 through the Museum Extension Project and later the Federal Art Project. He was forced to leave the program in 1939 when it was discovered that he had not yet received his final citizenship papers, but he appears to have rejoined in some capacity the following year.
Based on reviews and the few known examples of his work, Goodman painted in various schools and styles, including still life, landscapes, social realism, and modernism.
Goodman was working as a portrait painter in Detroit by 1948 but maintained contacts in Pittsburgh, as seen by a 1966 display and sale of his work at the home of Herbert Cohen.