Jules Maidoff

In 2002, Maidoff's experience in Italy and the progression of his work was documented in the short film "Jules Maidoff: An American Painter in Italy", co-directed and shot by his daughter, Natasha Maidoff, and Jilann Spitzmiller.

In 1973, he decided to relocate and concentrate on painting full time. Originally settling in Pian di Scò (where he had purchased a farmhouse in 1970), he began giving art lessons in his studio. Affiliations with study abroad programs led to the creation of an independently accredited nonprofit institution (SACI) which continues to this day as a degree-granting school at the graduate level.

Influenced by the Eastern European Jewish ancestry of his parents, as well as childhood visits to the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Maidoff was drawn towards a narrative approach to painting. His coming of age during World War II also contributed greatly to his views on the artist's social responsibility. After traveling to Florence in 1956 as part of the Fulbright Program, his interest in the art of the Renaissance as well as the history of Italy took root, and he frequently returned while supporting his family with work in graphic design and advertising.

Maidoff grew up in the Bronx, New York where he attended New York High School of Industrial Art and Cooper Union. In 1955 he received his BA from City College of New York. While completing his MA at CCNY he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Italy, where he spent one year. After returning to New York, he spent the next decade exhibiting his paintings and working in graphic design. Since 1973, he has lived and worked in Tuscany where, in 1975, he founded Studio Arts College International (formerly Studio Art Centers International).

Jules Maidoff (born May 6, 1933) is an American artist.