2005 Large Abstract Expressionist Gestural Oil Painting by Sheldon Berlyn, "Red White Blue"

Description

Sheldon Berlyn (1929-2020) American.
Oil on canvas, signed and dated 2005 verso. Geometric lines on a colorful abstract expressionism background. … more Sheldon Berlyn (1929-2020) American.
Oil on canvas, signed and dated 2005 verso. Geometric lines on a colorful abstract expressionism background.

Sheldon Berlyn was a noted abstract expressionist artist and educator. His works explore modern abstractionism through the use of bright colors and squeegee strokes to “engage the viewer through artificial, dramatic movement, color and light which leaps out of the painting to command the gaze and activate the senses.” Berlyn was born in 1929 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He studied at the Worcester Art Museum School, receiving his certificate in 1951. He also studied at the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art and Music, as well as the Art Academy of Cincinnati. In 1958, he began teaching at the University at Buffalo. He remained at the university, where he taught drawing and painting, for over forty years. In addition to his expansive teaching career, Berlyn became a noted artist in Western New York, exhibiting extensively and winning several awards for his works. Sheldon Berlyn has been painting abstract works for over forty years in a gradual evolution in form, related to abstract expressionism. We have seen works like Berlyn's in the paintings by Gerhard Richter (using a squeegee and liquid acrylic) and even with an artist like Jason Brooks ( photorealist portraits of swirled paints ). He was of the second generation of abstract expressionists, a contemporary of Joan Mitchell, Robert Goodnough, Frank Stella, Susan Rothenberg, Sam Francis and Pat Steir exhibitions included shows at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park (Lincoln, Massachusetts), the Rodman Art Center (Ontario, Canada), Auslands Institute (Germany), and the Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, Massachusetts), among others. In 1990, the University at Buffalo Poetry/Rare Books Collection held a retrospective show featuring Berlyn’s works from 1958-1990. The University Gallery Center for the Arts also hosted a one-man show of his work in 1997. In 2007, the Chautauqua Center for the Arts awarded Sheldon Berlyn the Bellinger Memorial Award in Painting.

Exhibitions
2011 Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, NY
2010 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Beyond/In Western New York 2010 Biennial Invitational Exhibition, Buffalo, NY
2007–2009 50th and 52nd Chautauqua Center for Visual Arts International Painting Exhibition, Chautauqua, NY
2008 Sheldon Berlyn, Works on Paper 1960s, ‘70s & ‘80s, Michael Donnelly Interior Design, Buffalo, NY (solo)
2005 Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Abstraction
1997 The University Gallery, Center for the Arts, SUNY, Buffalo (solo)
1997 Paintings, Caravaggio, Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University, Works on Paper, Caravaggiana (solo)
1996 Faculty, Alumni Exhibition, University Gallery, Center for the Arts SUNY, Buffalo
1994 Anderson Gallery, X-Sightings 1994, Buffalo, NY
1993–1994 Burchfield-Penny Art Center and New York State Museum, In the Academic Tradition, Buffalo and Albany, NY
1990–1991 Poetry, Rare Books Collection Gallery, SUNY, Buffalo (solo)
1989 Oxford Gallery, Drawings by Gallery Artists, Rochester, NY
1987 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, The Wayward Muse, A Historical Survey of Painting in Buffalo, NY, Buffalo, NY
1986 Oxford Gallery, 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Rochester, NY
1981 Le Copain Gallery, Buffalo, NY (solo)
1979 Nancy Kay Gallery, San Diego, CA (solo)
1976 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Members Gallery, Buffalo, NY (solo)
1971 Everson Museum, Loan Gallery, Syracuse, NY (solo)
1966 Schuman Gallery, Rochester, NY (solo)
1965 Schuman Gallery, Rochester, NY (solo) less