Herbert Jepson; Art Institute Founder

Herbert Jepson, 85, artist and founder of Los Angeles’ defunct Jepson Art Institute. The institute, which he operated from 1947 to 1953, was an important center for experimental figure drawing and art theory. A native of Fieldbrook, Calif., Jepson studied at the Chouinard Art Institute, where he later taught. He also was a logger, a miner and a furniture manufacturer, and he designed tools for Lockheed during World War II. But Jepson was primarily an artist and art educator. In addition to Chouinard and his own institute, he taught at Otis Art Institute, USC and UCLA. Many of his drawings and essays on creative theory have been acquired by the National Museum of American Art. On July 2 in Rancho Palos Verdes.