'Abstract in Seafoam and Coral' by Albert Abramovitz, 1961; Art Institute of Chicago, Benezit, Académie Chaumière

Description

Oil and paper assemblage abstracted seascape comprised of layers of cut and torn paper with printed patterns, images, and text, … more Oil and paper assemblage abstracted seascape comprised of layers of cut and torn paper with printed patterns, images, and text, overlapped by dynamic fields of sea-foam green, coral, and charcoal brush-strokes.

Signed upper right, "Abramovitz" and dated 1961.

Albert Abramovitz, painter and printmaker, was born in Riga, Latvia, on January 24, 1879. He studied art at the Imperial Art School in Odessa and, later, in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. While in Paris, he became a member of the Salon in 1911, and he became a member of its jury in 1913. Abramovitz also became a member of the Societaire Salon d'Automne. While in Europe he received a medal at Clichy, as well as the Grand Prize at the Universal Exposition in Rome and Turin, Italy in 1911.

In 1916, Abramovitz immigrated to the United States. His first solo show was at the Civic Club in Manhattan in 1921. Between 1927 and 1929, he was a resident of Los Angeles, California, but by the mid to late 1930s he had settled in Brooklyn, New York. His graphic work was included in both the 1938 and the 1939 International Exhibition of Lithographs and Wood Engraving at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1940, a solo exhibition of his work was mounted at the Bonestell Gallery and Abramovitz was included in exhibitions sponsored by the Union of American Artists, the American Artists Congress, the ACA Gallery, the New-Age Gallery, the National Academy of Design, and the American Association of University Women.

In his graphics, Abramovitz often employed imagery to convey social or political commentary. He produced a number of prints for the Federal Arts Project Works Progress Administration in New York between 1935 and 1939. His works are in the collections of the British Museum, the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art (New York), the New York Public Library, the David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Spencer Museum of Art, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Washington County Museum of Art, and the Frederick R. Wiseman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota.

Reference:
Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Vol. I, p. 36; et al. less