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abstraction

Curator's Corner

August Is Here: Willem de Kooning

Wednesday, August 6, 2025 | Karl Cole

In New England, it is generally said that summer is coming to an end in August. But I have a particular fondness for August because it’s when I discovered the house in Provincetown, Massachusett ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Marcel Duchamp

Monday, July 28, 2025 | Karl Cole

Marcel Duchamp matured as an artist during one of the most exciting periods in Western art history. Paris was one of the undisputed leaders in avant-garde experiments in art which had repercussions th ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Ludwig Sander

Friday, July 18, 2025 | Karl Cole

Ludwig Sander was a member of the New York School that established the United States as a center for modernist experiment in art. He was an early practitioner of Color Field painting which he stuck wi ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Gustav Klimt

Monday, July 14, 2025 | Karl Cole

Gustav Klimt, along with Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) was a leading Austrian modernist at the turn of the 1900s. Although noted as a society portrait painter in an Art Nouveau/Byzantine mosaic li ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Otto Freundlich

Thursday, July 10, 2025 | Karl Cole

The works of Otto Freundlich reflect the prevalence of geometric abstraction among Western European artists in the period between World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). His ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Barbara Chase-Riboud

Thursday, June 26, 2025 | Karl Cole

The tradition of African American women sculptors goes all the way back to the 1800s with Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907), continues through the Harlem Renaissance in the person of Augusta Savage (189 ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Jimmy Ernst

Friday, June 20, 2025 | Karl Cole

Jimmy Ernst was the son of pioneering German Surrealist artist Max Ernst. In the late 1940s he emerged as a major force in American Abstract Expressionism. ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Anni Albers

Thursday, June 12, 2025 | Karl Cole

Anni Albers is notable as one of the class of Bauhaus fiber artists who helped elevate weaving and other fiber disciplines to the status of fine art in Western art. After moving to the United States, ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Ernst Wilhelm Nay

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 | Karl Cole

Nay, who was forbidden by the Nazis to paint or even buy art supplies after 1937, painted abstractions secretly in a French sculptor’s cellar while serving as a cartographer in the German army i ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Conrad Marca-Relli

Thursday, June 5, 2025 | Karl Cole

Conrad Marca-Relli was part of the “first generation” of Abstract Expressionism, along with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. His artistic vision, however, was uniquely apart from eit ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Marlow Moss

Thursday, May 29, 2025 | Karl Cole

Marlow Moss was a major figure in abstraction between the world wars. She was very active in the Abstraction-Creation group of abstract artists in the between-the-wars School of Paris, and she was act ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Wols (A.O.W. Schulze)

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 | Karl Cole

Wols was a major figure in the School of Paris that developed after World War I (1914–1918). He was a pioneering artist in Lyrical Abstraction, and was a major influence on the Tachisme movement ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Leon Polk Smith

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | Karl Cole

Leon Polk Smith was an American artist of Cherokee descent who was a pioneer of modernism long before Abstract Expressionism evolved in New York. His works throughout his career emphasized a pure geom ...

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Curator's Corner

AAPI Heritage Month 2025: Tadashi Sato

Monday, May 19, 2025 | Karl Cole

In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I’m featuring the work of Tadashi Sato. Sato was an American artist of Japanese descent who introduced traditional Japanese ...

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Curator's Corner

Jewish American Heritage Month: Gandy Brodie

Monday, May 12, 2025 | Karl Cole

Jewish American Heritage Month is celebrated in May to recognize and honor the contributions of Jewish Americans to the United States. It's a time to celebrate the diverse experiences and rich history ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Ynez Johnston

Monday, May 12, 2025 | Karl Cole

Ynez Johnston’s unique style blends modernism and ancient art forms from her travels to Italy, Mexico, India and Nepal. Johnston also created three dimensional pieces in collaboration with her h ...

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