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abstraction

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 US, she became ...

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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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Curator's Corner

National Skilled Trades Day: Jacob Lawrence

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 | Karl Cole

National Skilled Trades Day was established in 2019 by the National Day Calendar and City Machine Technologies, Inc. Skilled workers are employed in a variety of fields and positions that can be perso ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Donald Sultan

Monday, May 5, 2025 | Karl Cole

Donald Sultan is part of the late 1900s New Image art phenomenon. In a break with Minimalism, Sultan wanted his figuration to present a monumental simplicity and directness of abstract art, while main ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Auguste Herbin

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 | Karl Cole

Auguste Herbin was one of the many French artists who were, before World War I, greatly influenced by the development of Cubism. His zest for abstraction did not abate after the war, when he became a ...

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Curator's Corner

Arab American Heritage Month: Saliba Douaihy

Monday, April 28, 2025 | Karl Cole

Since 2017, the Arab American Foundation has designated April as Arab American Heritage Month. Forty-eight states made statements honoring the April celebration in 2023. That same year, President Jose ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Cy Twombly

Friday, April 25, 2025 | Karl Cole

Forming his aesthetic during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, Cy Twombly pioneered his own unique brand of modernism. Rather than emphasizing process, he was inspired by art history past, particu ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Liubov Popova

Thursday, April 24, 2025 | Karl Cole

Liubov Popova was one of the many women artists active in the avant garde art during the period of the Russian Revolution (1917). Not only did she experiment in all of the most recent modernist styles ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Yamaguchi Katsuhiro

Tuesday, April 22, 2025 | Karl Cole

Katsuhiro Yamaguchi was a key figure in the transition to modernism in Japanese art after World War II (1939–1945). He incorporated his view of modernist experiment almost as a science into nume ...

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