Chronology.

1919
March 13: Irving Kriesberg is born in Chicago, Illinois to Bessie and Max Kriesberg. His older brothers are Lee (1915) and Martin (March 22, 1917). 

1920
The Kriesberg family lives above Lincoln Furs at 2500 W. Winona St. (N. Lincoln Ave. at W. Winona St.), Chicago. The shop is owned and run by Bessie and Max.

1926
July 30: Louis, the youngest of the four Kriesberg brothers is born.

1933
Irving creates a mural for A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago’s 1934 World’s Fair (May 27, 1933 – Oct 31, 1934).

1934
Irving and Martin serve as art editors for their Von Steuben High School yearbook Progress. Irving draws caricatures of some of the students and faculty. Both Irving and Martin are members of the school’s Art Club.

1937
Graduates from Von Steuben High School, Chicago.

1937 - 1940 Paints the Aurora Mural (destroyed) in Sam's Cafe, Aurora, Illinois. 

1939
Kriesberg’s murals for College of Jewish Studies, Chicago are unveiled in a celebration in Bialik Hall (220 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois).

1940
Kriesberg teaches art at the Deborah Boys’ Club in Albany Park, Chicago.

1941
June 13: Kriesberg graduates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA). Following graduation, Kriesberg travels to Mexico, where he studies at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas, Mexico City. He is a part of El Taller de Gráfica Popular, an influential graphic arts collective founded in 1937 by Mexican artists Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins, and Luis Arenal. He also works at the Government School of Painting and Sculpture (Calléjon Esmeralda). 

1943
April 5: Marries Ruth Miller in Mexico.

Paints murals for the agricultural fair for the Ministry of Agriculture in Mexico City. 

1944
August: Exhibits his engraving ¡Alto! ya ganamos in Taller de Gráfica Popular’s Exposicion de Litografia y Grabado (August 8–19, 1944).

1945
Kriesberg returns to the U.S. and moves to New York City. 

1945-48
Kriesberg works as an animator for Artkraft Strauss, where he designs artwork for the animated ‘Broadway Spectacular’ and ‘Wondersign’ billboards in Times Square, New York. 

1946
April 25: Two person exhibition with Raymond Katz opens at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition was on view through June 2, 1946. Chicago Tribune reports: “There can hardly help but be a tragic note dominating this exhibition. The Old Testament is splendid, but not without sorrow, and it is to the old tales of “Abraham’s Sacrifice,” Jacob’s Struggle,” “Joseph and His Brothers,” and “Lot’s Wife” that Kriesberg has turned for this material. Kriesberg was a Talmudic scholar even when he was a pupil in Chicago’s public schools and while he studied in the Art Institute school, from which he graduated with a B.A. in 1941. He has been painting in Mexico recently and is now working on a Spanish-English book for children with illustrations.” —Eleanor Jewett, The Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1946

1951
May 8: New talent exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art features the work of Henry Di Spirito, Kriesberg, and Raymond August Mintz, (May 8–July 8, 1951). 

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires Kriesberg’s painting Red Sheep (1951) as a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Kastor. This is the first work by the artist to enter a major public institution.

November 8: Participates in The Whitney Museum of American Art’s 1951 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting (November 8, 1951–January 6, 1952).

1952
April 9: Director of Exhibitions, Dorothy C. Miller, features Kriesberg in the exhibition 15 Americans at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Other exhibiting artists include: William Baziotes, Edward Corbett, Edwin Dickinson, Herbert Ferber, Joseph Glasco, Herbert Katzman, Frederick Kiesler, Richard Lippold, Jackson Pollock, Herman Rose, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Bradley Walker Tomlin, and Thomas Wilfred. 

1953 
Kriesberg paints New Baby (Collection of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University) in celebration of the birth of his son Matthias.  

1954 
Kriesberg completes his first animated film titled Pastoral (20 minutes, 16mm film with musical score by Douglas Townsend).  

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires Kriesberg’s lithograph Orange Birds (1952). 

1955 
Kriesberg’s first book Looking at Pictures: A Guide to Intelligent Appreciation is published by the Center for the Study of Liberal Education for Adults, Chicago.

1955
April 26: Kriesberg’s first solo show in New York City opens at Curt Valentin Gallery. Reviewed by M.S. (Michel Seuphor) in Arts Digest: “His buoyant lyricism reappears with renewed vigor and optimism in the 1955 canvases, variations on the theme of boy with dog and bird, in gay and poignant paintings organized by horizontal bands of bright color. It is still the wistfulness of his content rather than plastic strength which lends appeal to Kriesberg’s work...”

1955 - 1961
Kriesberg teaches at Parsons School of Design, New York. 

1957
January: As part of the art school faculty at the Brooklyn Museum, Kriesberg offers two free lectures on art appreciation: “How We Understand Paintings” and “What a Work of Art Communicates to Us.” 

August: The Kriesberg family moves to Roslyn, New York. They purchase the historic Lamb-Ramsauer House (Circa 1870) at 44 East Broadway, Roslyn.  

1958
March 2: Kriesberg’s painting Francesca, 1953, is singled out in a review of the 68th Annual Nebraska Art Association Exhibition by Emily Trickey of the Lincoln Star Journal, Lincoln Nebraska.

1961
October 24: Kriesberg’s mid-career survey opens at the Jewish Museum, New York. Along with a selection of paintings, Kriesberg’s animated film Pastoral (1954) premiers at the opening reception. Allan Kaprow writes the essay for the accompanying exhibition catalogue. 

1962 - 1969
Kriesberg serves as a Visiting Critic and Resident Professor at Yale’s Graduate School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut.

1964 
Kriesberg’s second book titled Art: The Visual Experience is published by Pitman Publishing Corporation, New York. 

Awarded a Ford Foundation Painting Purchase Award. 

The Whitney Museum of American Art acquires Kriesberg’s painting The Everlasting Turtle (1963) as a gift of the artist under the Ford Foundation Purchase Program.

1965-66
Kriesberg earns a Fulbright Fellowship to travel to India. Lectures on “Current Issues in American Art” at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Simla, India. Exhibits his work in a solo presentation at the Kumar Gallery in New Delhi (January 7 – 15 ,1966).

1966
May: Meets Barbara Nimri Aziz in Simla, India. 

Summer: Spends time living and working at the Ein Hod art settlement in Haifa, Israel. 

October 12: Kriesberg and Richard Lytle participate in an artists’ talk moderated by Jack Tworkov at Hastings Hall, Yale University, New Haven.

1966 - 67
Kriesberg teaches a series of intensive art workshops for students at the New School during the Fall. 

1968
May 23: Kriesberg speaks on a panel with Raymond Hendler, Bob Henry, Alex Katz, Tony Siani, and Nicholas Sperakis. The title of the panel is “Artist + Society/Marketplace = ?” The discussion is presented by 8 O’Clock Art Forums with Jack Rabinowitz as moderator. 

1970
Moves to a studio at the famed Westbeth artist’s housing community, at 55 Bethune Street, New York.

October: Kriesberg joins the faculty in the photography department at the Maryland Institute of Art. 

November: Delivers a lecture at the Third Annual meeting of the Maryland Institute Alumni Association, Inc. on Film—Some New Steps for the Maryland Institute.

1971
Receives a MacDowell Colony Fellowship.

June 13 - 15: Kriesberg lectures on Contemporary Art in the United States at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. 

1972
January 14: Curates 10 Independents: An Artist-Initiated Exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Exhibiting Artists: Romare Bearden, Robert Beauchamp, Mary Frank, Red Grooms, Lester Johnson, Irving Kriesberg, Joseph Kurhajec, Maryan (Maryan S. Maryan), Peter Schumann, H.C. Westermann. Kriesberg’s animated film Out of Into (16 min, 16 mm film with an electric score by Bülent Arel) premieres in conjunction with the exhibition.  

Earns his M.A. in Film from New York University. 

Receives the New York State Creative Artists Public Service Award. 

Out of Into wins the Cine Golden Eagle at the International Animation Festival, Zagreb, (Former) Yugoslavia.

July 3 - 14: Kriesberg teaches a filmmaking workshop as part of a summer arts curriculum at Wagner College, Staten Island, New York.

1973
November 8: Participates in the First Annual New York State Independent Filmmakers Festival presented by CAPS and SPACE at 344 West 36th Street, New York. Others featured included Ken Jacobs, Taylor Mead, Red Grooms, Robert Frank, Tony Conrad, Storm De Hirsch, Jerry Jofen, Lloyd Birdwell, Bonnie Friedman, Jimmy Hinton, Samuel Holmes, (James) Jimmy Mannas and Don Lenzer.

1974
February 16: Artist As Filmmaker Series. Kriesberg screens his animated films at Artists Space, 155 Wooster Street, New York alongside films by Carolee Schneemann, Susan Brockman, and Rosalind Schneider. 

December 2: Marries Barbara Nimri Aziz.

Receives residency for painting at the Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

Releases a short film called Eddie King about a road repair flag man. 

1975
Spring: Kriesberg teaches a semester long program for painters at Empire State College. 

1976
Receives the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Memorial Award.

Receives a Yaddo Art Colony Fellowship.

September 17: Kriesberg’s Ezekiel mural, inspired by Ezekial, Chapter 37 in the Old Testament, is dedicated to Beth Emet Synagogue in Evanston, Illinois during Friday evening Shabbat services. 

1977 
Moves to a studio on Spring Street, in SoHo, New York.

Teaches a painting workshop at Columbia University, New York. 

1979
January: Solo exhibition opens at Fairweather Harden Gallery marking the first major exhibition in many years.

1979-1980
Receives a second MacDowell Colony Fellowship.

1980 
Artist in residence at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.

1981 
Kriesberg is awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Award. 

1982
June 7: Kriesberg’s 40-foot tall Peace Dove banner is unfurled on the façade of 2 Columbus Circle, New York (former headquarters of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, current site of the Museum of Art and Design). The banner symbolizes the peace movement and the anti-nuclearization initiative. There were several large rallies and marches in which Kriesberg participated. 

1984 
Teaches an experimental animation workshop at the Design Institute in Ahmedabad, India. 

1986 
Kriesberg’s third book, Working with Color: A Manual for Painters is published by Prentice-Hall, New York.

1989
April 22: Kriesberg’s banner depicting the traditional breaking of the matzoh and  imbued with political symbolism is displayed during a peace rally. It was on display during a peace rally as reported in The New York Times: “At the peace rally Sunday, a banner showed the traditional breaking of the matzoh, but imbued it with new meaning. The banner, created by an artist, Irving Kriesberg, Showed the matzoh breaking into two states, one shaped like pre-1967 Israel and the other like the West Bank.” (Goldman, Ari L. Modern Concerns Enrich Passover Rituals, The New York Times, April 18, 1989)

May 20 - June 30: Guest artist and lecturer at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, during the Summer Six Art Program.

1990
September 23 - October 13: Kriesberg serves as a painting critic at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont. 

Travels to Italy and works on ceramic sculpture.

1992 
Kriesberg’s book Working with Color: A Manual for Painters is reissued by Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.

Resident artist at the Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Tech University, Smithville, Tennessee. 

The Jewish Museum, New York acquires Kriesberg’s painting Jacob’s Struggle (1946). 

1994
March: Kriesberg receives the Edwin Palmer Memorial Prize from the National Academy of Design, New York.

Resident artist at the Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Tech University, Smithville, Tennessee. 

1995
January 14: Anthropologist Judith Gleason meets with Kriesberg in his studio to discuss his series of 39 sequential narrative paintings on paper titled Tashilham (1988-91), a Tibetan word meaning ‘fortunate journey’. The conversation was filmed and released by MUSE Film and Television/ l Camerini- Robertson Documentary Films. 

1996
November 19: Kriesberg lectures about his work at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, New York.  

1998
April 2: Kriesberg is awarded the Benjamin Altman Figure Prize from the National Academy, New York, for a painting by an American artist in the 173rd Annual Exhibition. 

Marries Felice K. Shea.

Moves to a studio and home on Washington Square Park.

1999
Resident artist at the Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Tech University, Smithville, Tennessee.

2002
Receives a Lee Krasner Lifetime Achievement Award. 

2005
March 27: Longview Museum of Fine Arts student group donates Kriesberg’s Monkey Strider II (1973) to the museum.

November 12: Martin Kriesberg passes away in Bethesda, MD. 

2009
November 11: Irving Kriesberg dies in his Manhattan home at the age of 90. 

2012
Irving Kriesberg: Animal Narratives, curated by Adam Zucker is on view at The Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX from January 14–February 25. A book with the same title is published by the Estate of Irving Kriesberg featuring essays by Zucker and Michael McNay.

2015
Peace Dove (1982) is used as the cover image for Louis Kriesberg’s book Realizing Peace, published by Oxford University Press.