Eleanor Coen and her husband Max Kahn were at the forefront of the Chicago art scene in the 1940s and ’50s, as well as leaders in the city’s involvement with the TGP Taller de Gráfica Popular. Coney, as she liked to be called, met Max Kahn at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where she took lithography classes under his direction. She also studied painting with Boris Anisfeld and printmaking with Francis Chapin, later becoming Chapin’s assistant. Both Coney and Kahn were involved in the WPA’s Federal Art Project in Chicago from 1939 to 1940. This program, which hired artists to provide art for government buildings and to document the harsh economic conditions of the time, was a great opportunity for the two to develop their skills and styles, since they were under no pressure to sell their work.

from Costa, Para la Gente: Art, Politics and Cultural Identity of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Notre Dame, 2009)