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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
1903
Born March 14, in New York
1919 Left high school, enrolled in Art Students
League. Studied painting under John Sloan, attended lectures of
Robert Henri.
1921 Worked his passage to Europe. Attended sketch
classes at the Academie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris; traveled
to Berlin and Munich.
1923 Returned to New York. Finished high school
and studied at Parsons School of Design, The Art Students League,
Cooper Union and the Educational Alliance Art School.
1929 Awarded joint prize in the Dudensing National
Competition.
1930 Shared in two-person exhibition at Dudensing
Galleries, New York.
1932 Married Esther Dick.
1935 Became a founding member of “The Ten”,
a group devoted to expressionist and abstract painting.
1936 Employed as easel painter on WPA Federal Art
Project.
1937 Moved to desert near Tucson, Arizona.
1938 Returned to New York. Won U.S. Treasury sponsored
nationwide mural competition; commissioned to paint mural in post
office in Yerrington, Nevada.
1940 Fifteen Arizona paintings show at Artists’
Gallery, New York.
1941 Began to develop “Pictographs.”
Four Arizona paintings shown in first annual exhibition of the Federation
of Modern Painters and Sculptors, in March, at Riverside Museum.
1942 First “Pictograph” shown in second
annual exhibition of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors,
in May, at Wildenstein Galleries, New York.
1943 Founding member of “New York Artist
Painters”, a group of abstract painters including Mark Rothko,
John Graham and George Constant.
Co-authored letter with Mark Rothko, published in the New York Times
(June 13); the letter is the first formal statement of concerns
of the Abstract Expressionist artists.
1944 Awarded First Prize, Brooklyn Society of Artists
annual Exhibition for Symbols and the Desert, painted in Tucson,
c.1938.
1944/45 President of the Federation of Modern Painters
and Sculptors.
1946 Participated in forum, “Problems of
Art and Artists Today and Tomorrow.” Chaired forum, “The
Function of Art Criticism.”
1948 Participated in forum, “The Modern Artist
Speaks,” at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1949 Participated in forum, “The Schism Between Artist and
Public.”
1951 Designed Ark curtain for Congregation B’nai
Israel, Millburn, New Jersey. Received purchase prize, University
of Illinois, Contemporary American Painting.
1952 Designed and supervised fabrication of 1,300
square-foot stained glass façade for the Milton Steinberg
Memorial Center, New York. First “Imaginary Landscape”
shown at Kootz Gallery, New York.
1953 Designed Ark curtain for Congregation Beth
El, Springfield, Massachusetts.
1954 Participated in conference, “Art Education
and the Creative Process,” sponsored by the Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
Retrospective exhibition organized by Bennington College, Bennington,
Vermont.
1957 First “Burst” shown in January,
at the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York.
1958 Taught at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York,
and at University of California at Los Angeles.
1961 Awarded Third Prize, Pittsburgh International
Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1963 Awarded Grand Premio, VII Beinal de Sao Paolo,
Brazil.
1965 Received award, American Academy of Achievement,
Dallas, Texas.
1966 Studio and contents destroyed by fire.
1967 Appointed to Art Commission, City of New York.
1968 Retrospective exhibition organized jointly
by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; opened at both museums simultaneously,
February 14.
1970 Suffered stroke; confined to wheelchair, left
side paralyzed; continued painting.
1972 Elected member of the National Institute of
Arts and Letters.
1973 Delivered lecture and juried student exhibition
at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
1974 Died March 4, New York City.
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