Milton Resnick

Milton Resnick
Milton Resnick

Untitled, c. 1990, acrylic painting on paper, private collection
Born January 7, 1917(1917-01-07)
Bratslav, Russia
Died March 12, 2004(2004-03-12) (aged 87)
Nationality American
Field Painting
Movement Abstract Expressionism
Awards Jimmy Ernst Award (1990)[1]

Milton Resnick (January 7, 1917 - March 12, 2004) was a major abstract expressionist painter and teacher known for his mystical, abstract and figurative paintings. Born in Bratslav, Russia, he emigrated to the United States in 1922.

Contents

Biography

Milton Resnick was one of the last survivors of the first generation of the New York Abstract Expressionists. Born in Russia, Resnick and his family left and arrived in New York City in 1922 at age five. He settled in Brooklyn with his family and attended public school where a teacher re-named him from his birth name of Rachmiel and nickname of Milya to Milton. At age 14, he enrolled in the commercial art program at the Pratt Institute Evening School of Art in Brooklyn, but a teacher there suggested he switch to fine arts, so the next year he enrolled in the American Artists' School in New York City. Ad Reinhardt, future Abstract Expressionist, was a classmate, and they shared a budding interest in abstraction.

However, Resnick father forbid any expression from his son of wanting to be an artist and faced with this disapproval of his commitment to painting, Resnick moved out in 1934 when he was 17. He supported himself as an elevator boy and continued at the American Artists' School, where he was given a small studio room and each day provided with materials left behind by students attending night classes.

During the Great Depression, Resnick was in the Easel and Mural Division of the WPA of the Works Progress Administration. By 1938, he had his own studio on West 21st Street, and there was nearby Willem de Kooning with whom he formed a close friendship in the 1940s. However, Resnick's art career was interrupted by World War II, and he served five years in the Army, stationed in Iceland and Europe. After the war he lived for three years in Paris, where among others, he associated with modernist sculptors Alberto Giacometti and Constantin Brâncuşi.He endured near-starvation during this period only to have the one show of his work created in Paris canceled by an unsavory dealer.

In 1948, Milton Resnick returned to New York, and used his G.I. benefits to enroll in abstract expressionist painter Hans Hofmann's school. He also took a studio on East 8th Street, near Jackson Pollock, de Kooning, and Franz Kline, and in September through de Kooning met artist Pat Passlof,[2] whom he married in 1961.

In the late forties he debated painting with his friends and colleagues Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, sometimes at The Club,[3][4] a regular meeting of modern artists working in and around Tenth Street in New York.[5] Like them Resnick was striving for an overall quality for his pictures, a way to unite foreground and background, in order to achieve a resolution of opposites, a metaphor for all dialectics. While the others moved toward throwing or dragging quantities of paint across the face of the canvas, Resnick retained a particularly personal and impassioned confrontation with brush painting. Sometimes his work was referred to as Abstract Impressionism because of his all over style. Coming into prominence just as Pop Art moved into the limelight, his great accomplishments weren't recognized to the extent some thought they merited, as a painterly integration of Western metaphysics and Eastern philosophy. In his mature years, he worked in a converted synagogue on Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side, attended by devoted students, admirers, and his wife and lifelong companion, the painter Pat Passlof (1928-2011[2])

During the 1950s and 1960s, Resnick earned respect for his Abstract Expressionist paintings and also was unique for being one of the few New York artists to have a large working space for large-scale canvases. In 1976, he purchased the space that served him to the end of his active career, an abandoned synagogue on Eldridge Street on New York's lower east side. It was near his wife's studio, which was another abandoned synagogue and purchased by the couple in 1963.

Public collections

The Akron Art Museum (Akron, OH), the Arizona State University Art Museum (Tempe, AZ), the Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, VA), the Jack S Blanton Museum of Art (University of Texas, Austin, TX), the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Montana Historical Society (Helena, MT), the Museum of New Mexico (Santa Fe, NM), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, NY), the Oakland Museum of California (Oakland, CA), the Phoenix Art Museum, the Roswell Museum and Art Center (Roswell, NM), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC), the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City), the University of Arizona Museum of Art (Tucson, AZ), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City) are among the public collections holding work by Milton Resnick.

Representation

The estate of Milton Resnick was formerly represented by the Robert Miller Gallery of New York, NY and is currently represented by Cheim & Read gallery of New York City.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Jimmy Ernst Award". American Academy of Arts and Letters. http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Ernst. Retrieved 7 October 2010. 
  2. ^ a b Cohen, David, "Integrity and Finesse: Pat Passlof, 1928-2011", ArtCritical.com, November 15th, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  3. ^ Sandler, Irving H. The New York School: The Painters and Sculptors of the Fifties, New York: Harper & Row, 1978. ISBN 0-06-438505-1 pp.29-45
  4. ^ Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6 pp.302-305
  5. ^ Tenth street galleries

Sources

  • His life and work are chronicled, mostly in the artist's own words, in Out of the Picture, Milton Resnick and the New York School, by Geoffrey Dorfman, published by Midmarch Arts Press, NY.

Books

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Milton Resnick — (7 de enero, 1917 12 de marzo, 2004) fue un pintor y maestro del Expresionismo abstracto, conocido por sus cuadros místicos, abstractos y figurativos. Le representaba la Galería Robert Miller de Nueva York. Nació en Bratslav, Rusia, y emigró a… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Resnick — is a surname, and may refer to:* Adam Resnick, American comedy writer * Alice Robie Resnick, Ohio Supreme Court Justice * Charlie Resnick * Faye Resnick * Josh Resnick * Lauren Resnick * Mike Resnick, science fiction author * Milton Resnick, an… …   Wikipedia

  • Monochrome painting — Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition: White on White, 1918, Museum of Modern Art New York Monochromatic painting has been an important component of avant garde visual art throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. Painters have… …   Wikipedia

  • History of painting — The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts from pre historic humans, and spans all cultures. The history of painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from Antiquity. Across cultures, and spanning continents and… …   Wikipedia

  • Western painting — The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from Antiquity. [Art of the Western World: From Ancient Greece to Post Modernism (Paperback)by Bruce Cole, Simon and Shuster, 1981,… …   Wikipedia

  • Timothy Hasenstein — (born November 19, 1940) is an American painter, sculptor and educator who was influenced by the New York School of Abstract Expressionists. Hasenstein was a protégé of Milton Resnick, who was artist in residence at the University of Wisconsin… …   Wikipedia

  • Academia Estadounidense de las Artes y las Letras — La Academia Estadounidense de las Artes y las Letras (American Academy of Arts and Letters) es una institución artística que apoya la literatura, música, y arte estadounidenses. Su lema es: «acoge, asiste y sostiene la excelencia» (foster, assist …   Wikipedia Español

  • New York School — For educational institutions in the state of New York, see education in New York. The New York School (synonymous with abstract expressionist painting) was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s …   Wikipedia

  • Secular Jewish culture — embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of religious Jews working in… …   Wikipedia

  • Jüdische Kultur — Der Ausdruck jüdische Kultur bezeichnet eine Reihe vielfältiger miteinander in Verbindung stehender Phänomene; zum einen die weltliche Kultur der jüdischen Gemeinschaften, zum anderen den kulturellen Beitrag bestimmter säkularer Juden, aber auch… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”