Charles Green Shaw

Charles Green Shaw (1 May 1892—2 April 1974) was an American painter and writer.

Charles Green Shaw, American Abstract Painter (1892 - 1974). Oil on board, 9 x 11. Signed Shaw, l.r. Condition: The painting is in overall good condition; tiny cracking in green pigment. Other colors have textures to them (in the making). This work is undated but likely comes from the artist’s most collected period, the early 1940’s, a period characterized by hard edge abstraction. Private collection, Washington DC.

A significant figure in American abstract art, Shaw enjoyed a varied career as a writer and illustrator, poet, modernist painter, and collector. Born to a wealthy family and orphaned at a young age, Charles and his twin brother were raised by their uncle, Frank D. Shaw. At age nine, he was already an avid painter and had illustrated his first book, The Costumes of Nations. He also wrote and illustrated the children's book, It Looked Like Spilt Milk, published in 1947. Shaw graduated from Yale in 1914, where he was a member of the St. Anthony Hall aka Delta Psi Fraternity[1], and completed a year of architectural studies at Columbia University. He worked as a freelance writer for The New Yorker, The Smart Set, and Vanity Fair, where his focus was the 1920s theater and café society. In 1927, Shaw enrolled in Thomas Hart Benton's class at the Art Students League of New York. He also studied privately with George Luks. Shaw’s work is part of most major collections of American Art, including the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim, the Smithsonian Institution, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Corcoran Gallery.

As a founding member of the American Abstract Artists Shaw participated in the first annual exhibition. His article, A Word to the Objector, was included in the group's first publication.

References

• Charles Green Shaw biography
• Staff report (April 3, 1974). Charles G. Shaw, 81, Abstract Painter. New York Times
• Russell, John (January 3, 1976). Art: The American Idiom of Charles Shaw. New York Times
• Personal papers archived at the Smithsonian Institution [2]

External links

• American Abstract Artists
• Charles Green Shaw Papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art

Persondata
Name	Shaw, Charles Green
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Date of birth	1892
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Date of death	1974
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