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BIOGRAPHY
Born
in St. Petersburg, Ilya Bolotowsky became a leading early 20th-century
painter in abstract styles in New York City. His work, a search
for philosophical order through visual expression, embraced Cubism
and Geometric Abstraction and was much influenced by Dutch painter
Piet Mondrian. Bolotowsky immigrated to America in 1923 and, settling
in New York City, attended the National Academy of Design. He became
associated with a group called The Ten, artists including Mark Rothko
and Joseph Solman who rebelled against the strictures of the Academy
and held independent exhibitions.
In 1936, having turned to geometric abstractions, he was one of
the founding members of the American Abstract Artists, a cooperative
formed to promote the interests of abstract painters and to increase
understanding between themselves and the public.
During this period, Bolotowsky came under the influence of the Dutch
painter Piet Mondrian and the tenets of Neoplasticism, a movement
that advocated the possibility of ideal order in the visual arts.
Bolotowsky adopted his mentor's use of horizontal and vertical geometric
pattern and a palette restricted to primary colors and neutrals.
His mural for the Williamsburg Housing Project, New York, was one
of the first abstract murals done under the Federal Art Project.
Despite Bolotowsky's clear, precise control of his images, he emphasized
the role of intuition over formula in determining his compositions.
In the 1960s, he began making three-dimensional forms, usually vertical
and straight sided. |
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