 |
|
BIOGRAPHY
1927 Born in Media, PA.
1937 Show drawings to N.C. Wyeth at Chadds Ford.
Wyeth encourages him and gives him art supplies. Stays in touch
until Wyeth’s death.
1938 Starts classes on Saturday mornings at the
Philadelphia Graphics Sketch Club, where he is the youngest student.
Inspired by an illuminated sign of a can of Sherwin-Williams red
paint being poured onto the world.
1944 Graduates from Media High School. Turns
down a scholarship to the University of Utah. Works as an assistant
tree surgeon and lifeguard to earn money for art. Begins study
at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. N.C. Wyeth writes
recommendation: “This boy has the stuff.” Studies
under Franklin Watkins, Daniel Garber and Walter Stuempfig. Begins
discipline of drawing every morning in a notebook. Spends much
time alone drawing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Makes sketches
for Jasper Deeter at Hedgerow Theater in Rose Valley, PA.
1945 Enters the U.S. Army Air Corps.
1946 Returns to the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts. Begins long, solitary walks in the early morning. Exhibits
in Philadelphia in group shows at The Philadelphia Art Alliance
and The Philadelphia Print Club.
1947 Studies with Abraham Chanin at the Barnes
Foundation, Merion, PA. Included in the annual exhibition of the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Marries
Diana Denny. William Denny Scharf born December 27.
1948-49 Included in two-person exhibition at
the Dubin Gallery in Philadelphia. Receives the Cresson Traveling
Scholarship from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Goes
to Paris and studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
Travels to Italy, Belgium, and England. In England becomes friends
with Leslie Illingsworth of Punch magazine, to whom he sells drawings.
Takes classes at the University of Pennsylvania in 1949.
1949 Dances with Shirley Temple at Harry Truman’s
inaugural ball.
1950 Reenters the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts, where he has a one-person exhibition. Spends many evenings
in jazz clubs sketching. Becomes friendly with Dizzy Gillespie.
1951 Divorced. Goes to sea working on a tanker
that travels to Pennsylvania, Texas, and South America. Continues
sketching in notebooks and reading William Butler Yeats. On return
earns money as a clown diver in an aquacade and as a lifeguard
in Florida.
1952 Moves to a studio in New York City above
Jimmy Ryan’s, a New Orleans nightclub on West 52nd Street;
falls asleep each night to “When the Saints Come Marching
In.” Meets New Orleans clarinetist Omar Simeon. Begins works
as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with artists John
Hultberg and Charles Brady.
1953 Moves to West 53rd Street studio next to
the Museum of Modern Art. Gets a job as a guard at MoMA and later
teaches in Victor D’Amico’s classes. Becomes close
friends with Dorothy Miller and Mark Rothko. Rothko introduces
him to other artists as “my young colleague.” Also
becomes friends with the photographer Jack Manning, the artist
Julius Hatofsky, and the jazz musician Willie Dennis. Devotes
his lunch hour to read to Abraham Walkowitz, who is going blind.
Becomes friends with other artists downtown at the Cedar Street
Bar, including Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning. Meets Stuart
Davis, who mentions him in his notebooks.
1954-57 Exhibits in New York City in small group
shows at the John Meyers Gallery, Poindexter Gallery, Avante Garde
Galley, and the Heller Gallery.
1956 Marries Sally Kravitch, an actress, whose
stage name is Sally Jessup. Mark Rothko is best man and his wife
Mel is matron of honor; the reception is held at the Rothkos’
apartment. Included in the American Federation of Art’s
“Museum Director’s Choice,” traveling group
exhibition.
1958 Work included in group exhibitions at the
University of Illinois Annual in Urbana, Ill., the Symphony Hall
Guild in Boston, Mass., MoMA in New York City, the Institute of
Contemporary Art in Boston, Mass., the Houston Museum of Contemporary
Art in Texas, as well as the American Federation of Art’s
“New Talent” traveling exhibition.
1959 Appears on Broadway as a reporter in The
Andersonville Trial. Drawings published in the New York Herald.
Included in an exhibition at the National Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.
1960 Has first one-person exhibition in New York
City at the David Herbert Gallery.
1961 Artwork selected by Thomas Messer for the
Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. Given the May Audubon Post
Award at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
1962 Has second one-person exhibition at the
David Herbert Gallery and shows for the first time at the American
Gallery in New York City. Exhibits in the National Gallery in
Dublin, Ireland, as well as at the University of Illinois Annual
in Urbana.
1963 Beings teaching painting and drawing at
the San Francisco Art Institute. Included in exhibitions at Brandeis
University in Waltham, Mass., and at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield,
Conn.
1964 Has one-person exhibition at the Griffin
Gallery in New York City. Begins assisting Mark Rothko on preliminary
studies for the De Menil Chapel in Houston, Tex. Moves into a
studio on Columbus Avenue in New York City. Teaches painting and
drawing at MoMA’s Art Center. Aaron Anderson Scharf born
February 25.
1965-69 Teaches painting and drawing at the School
of Visual Arts, New York City.
1966 Meets Robert Beverly Hale, Curator of American
Painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who becomes a close
friend.
1966-85 Begins working during the summer at Tybee
Island, Ga., in the former studio of Alexander Brook. Next year
finds space in an abandoned cotton warehouse in Savannah, Ga.,
on the river. Divides time there with teaching at the San Francisco
Art Institute and the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Starts scroll paintings titled Continuum in river studio. Meets
poet Conrad Aiken. In San Francisco has studio above Harrington’s
Bar on Front Street and exhibits first series of Continuum.
1967 Travels to Paris to see Picasso exhibition,
then to Dublin and London.
1969 Teaches painting and drawing at the San
Francisco Art Institute.
1970 Travels to Leningrad, Kalinin, and Moscow
to study icons.
1973 Shows in small group exhibition at the Martha
Jackson Gallery in New York City.
1974 Teaches painting and drawings at the San
Francisco Art Institute. Gives guest lectures at Stanford University,
Palo Alto, Calif., and the California College of Arts and Crafts,
San Francisco.
1976 Has one-person exhibition of Continuum scrolls
(covers 3,000 square feet) at the Neuberger Museum in Purchase,
N.Y. Included in group exhibitions in Brussels, Belgium at Galerie
Alexandra Monett and Les Ateliers du Grand Hornu Galerie d’Art.
New York attorney general appoints him to serve on the board of
the newly created Rothko Foundation.
1977 Has one-person show of Continuum at the
Lerner-Heller Gallery in New York City.
1978 Exhibits Continuum at the High Museum of
Art in Atlanta, Ga. Included in three-person exhibition at the
Gurewitsch Gallery in New York City, and also at Smith-Anderson
Gallery in Palo Alto, Calif. Acts as guest curator for the Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum’s Rothko retrospective exhibition.
1979 Exhibits at the Smith-Anderson Gallery in
Palo Alto, Calif. Gives a guest lecture at Pratt Institute, New
York City.
1980 Travels to Greece and works on notebook
drawings. Exhibits at the Summit Art Center in Summit, N.J. and
at Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York City.
1982 Travels to London and St. Ives in Cornwall;
continues to work on notebook drawings.
1985 Displaced from Savannah studio when it is
gentrified into an inn. Finds studio in New York City on West
68th Street. Becomes friends with artist Esteban Vincente. Has
one-person exhibition at Saint Peter’s Church in New York
City.
1987 Has one-person shows at the Armstrong and
the Elizabeth Bartholet Galleries in New York City and the Brownson
Gallery at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. Begins teaching
painting and drawing at the Art Students League, New York City,
where he still teaches.
1989 Travels to England and works on notebook
drawings. Teaches painting and drawing at the San Francisco Institute
of Fine Arts.
1993 Has one-person exhibitions at the University
of Michigan Museum in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the Zimmerli Museum
at Rutgers University.
1994 The Philips Collection, Washington, D.C.,
acquires The Night Is in the Middle. In 1995 he gives the museum
eight studies for it; in 1996 he gives four more studies for it.
1994-99 Begins painting in Vinalhaven, Maine.
1996-99 Included in group show at the Anita Shapolsky
Gallery in New York City.
2000 Included in four-person show at the Anita
Shapolsky Gallery and League Masters Now at the Art Students League,
New York City.
2000-2001 Has one-person show at The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
2001 Has one-person show at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in Malibu, California
2002 Included in group show at P.S. 1/MoMA, Long Island City, New York
2004 Has one-person show at Richard York Gallery, New York City
2005 Has one-person show at Meredith Ward Fine Art, New York City
2007
Included in group exhibitions at the Frederick R. Weisman Musem
of Art, Malibu, California and at the National Academy Museum,
New York City
2007
Has one-person show at Mercury Gallery, Boston
|
|
