Sol Worth
About
Sol Worth was a painter, photography and visual communication scholar. His parents, Ida and Jacob Wishnepolsky, were Russian immigrants who worked in the garment industry and were active members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. His first language was Yiddish, and he spoke virtually no English until he began school at age 5. Worth attended the founding class of the High School of Music and Art in New York City as an art student from 1936 until 1940; in 1937 one of his paintings was chosen to be part of a student exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Upon graduation from high school he attended the State University of Iowa, where he studied with the painter Philip Guston. He graduated in 1943 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting, but entered the Navy before graduation and did not formally receive his diploma until already on board the USS Missouri in the Pacific. While in the Navy, Worth served as helmsman on the Missouri and was later assigned to Military Intelligence at the Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii.
