George M. Cohen, painter and art professor was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 4, 1919. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was awarded the Isaacs Scholarship in 1938-39 and the Coolbaugh Scholarship in 1939-1940. He also served as the President of the Art Students League in 1940.

After completing his B.F.A. at the Chicago Art Institute in 1946, Cohen briefly attended Drake University, where he studied Liberal Arts. At the University of Chicago, he completed residence work toward an M.A. and a Ph.D. in the History of Art from 1946-48. In 1948 Cohen joined the Northwestern University faculty as an instructor of art. He became a full professor in 1963, a position he held until his retirement in 1984, when he became professor emeritus.

Cohen worked in oils and mixed media. A Northwestern University “Faculty Profile” describes Cohen as “a surrealist” who “combines the metaphysical with the sensuous to express new realities of space, time, and the human figure.” Cohen was a founding member of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. In the mid-fifties, he was also a part of a “new Chicago School” which included artists Leon Golub, June Leaf and Cosmo Campoli.