Russian-American painter (1907–1981)
Ilya Bolotowsky (July 1, 1907 – November 22, 1981) was an early 20th-century Russian-American 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 influenced by Dutch painter
Piet Mondrian .
Biography
Born to Jewish parents in
St. Petersburg , Russia, Bolotowsky lived in
Baku and
Constantinople before immigrating to the United States in 1923, where he settled in New York City. He attended the
National Academy of Design .
[1] He became associated with a group called "The Ten Whitney Dissenters"
[2] or simply "
The Ten ", a group of artists including
Louis Schanker ,
Adolph Gottlieb ,
Mark Rothko ,
Ben-Zion , and
Joseph Solman who rebelled against the strictures of the Academy and held independent exhibitions.
[3]
Bolotowsky was strongly influenced by Dutch painter
Piet Mondrian
[4]
[5]
[6] and the tenets of
De Stijl , a movement that advocated the possibility of ideal order in the
visual arts . Bolotowsky adopted Mondrian's use of horizontal and vertical
geometric pattern and a palette restricted to
primary colors and neutrals.
Having turned to geometric abstractions, in 1936 Bolotowsky co-founded
American Abstract Artists , a
cooperative formed to promote the interests of abstract painters and to increase understanding between themselves and the public.
[7]
[8]
Ilya Bolotowsky (left)
Bolotowsky mural for the Williamsburg Housing Project
Bolotowsky's 1936 mural for the
Williamsburg Housing Project in Brooklyn
[9] was one of the first abstract murals done under the
Federal Art Project .
[10]
In the 1960s, he began making three-dimensional forms, usually vertical and straight-sided. Bolotowsky's work was exhibited at the
University of New Mexico in 1970.
[11]
Bolotowsky's first solo museum show was in 1974 at New York City's
Guggenheim Museum and went on to the
National Collection of Fine Arts .
[1]
[12]
[13]
His work has been exhibited at the
Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York City.
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
A Bolotowsky painting bought at a
North Carolina
Goodwill store for $9.99 was auctioned at
Sotheby's in September 2012 for $34,375.
[21]
Teaching
Bolotowsky taught at
Black Mountain College from 1946 to 1948.
[22]
[23] The artists
Kenneth Noland and
Ruth Asawa were among his students.
[24]
[25]
[26] He taught humanities and fine arts at the
Southampton, New York campus of
Long Island University , the State University of New York at New Paltz, the
University of Wisconsin, Whitewater , and the
University of New Mexico .
[27]
Collections
References
^
a
b Susan Behrends Frank (ed). 2013. Made in the U.S.A.: American art from the Phillips Collection, 1850–1970 . Yale University Press. p. 234.
^
"The Ten Whitney Dissenters" . louisschanker.info.
Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved December 17, 2010 .
^ Weiss, Jeffrey; Gage, John; Rothko, Mark (1998).
Mark Rothko . Yale University Press. p.
337 .
ISBN
978-0-300-08193-0 . The Ten, artists rothko bolotowsky.
^ Bolotowsky, Ilya (1974).
Ilya Bolotowsky: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York . Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. mondrian bolotowsky.
^ Perl, Jed (June 3, 2009).
New Art City: Manhattan at Mid-Century . Knopf Doubleday Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-307-53888-8 .
^ Noll, Anna C.; Kass, Emily; Blume, Sharon (1987).
"Collection Selections" .
^ Jones, Amelia (February 9, 2009).
A Companion to Contemporary Art Since 1945 . John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN
978-1-4051-5235-8 .
^ Institute, Carnegie (1981).
"Carnegie Magazine" .
^ Burns, Sarah L.; Carbone, Teresa A.; Madsen, Annelise K.; Oehler, Sarah Kelly (2016).
America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s . Yale University Press.
ISBN
978-0-300-21485-7 .
^
"New York Magazine" . May 28, 1990.
^ Bolotowsky, Ilya (1970).
"Ilya Bolotowsky; Paintings & Columns" .
^ J.D. Cohn. Bolotowsky paintings & columns, March 30 – April 25, 1974 . Borgenicht Gallery, New York City.
^ Ilya Bolotowsky . 1974. The
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , New York City.
^ Salvesen, Magda; Cousineau, Diane (2005).
Artists' Estates: Reputations in Trust . Rutgers University Press.
ISBN
978-0-8135-3604-0 .
Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
^
"The Expressive Edge of Paper" . The Huffington Post . March 18, 2014.
Archived from the original on March 12, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
^
" 'The Hard Line' Exhibit Highlights Artists' Use of Color | Highbrow Magazine" . October 22, 2014.
Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
^
Art in America: Annual guide to galleries, museums, artists . 2002.
Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
^
"New York Magazine" . June 13, 1994.
Archived from the original on April 12, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
^
"New York Magazine" . May 14, 1990.
Archived from the original on June 21, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
^
"New York Magazine" . December 24–31, 1990.
Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015 .
^
"Surprise Find at Goodwill Store Brings Thousands" . kovels.com. September 26, 2012.
^
"Artists & Designers - Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981) - DMA Collection Online" .
^ Morgan, Ann Lee (October 4, 2018).
The Oxford Dictionary of American Art & Artists .
ISBN
978-0-19-107388-5 .
^
"Line of Spirit" . 1993.
^
"Kenneth Noland" .
Archived from the original on June 2, 2019. Retrieved December 8, 2019 .
^ Katz, Vincent (October 7, 2013).
"Vincent Katz on Ruth Asawa (1926–2013)" . www.artforum.com . Retrieved March 3, 2023 .
^ John Krushenick. Ilya Bolotowsky, April 21 – May 28, 1978 . Exhibition catalog. Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
^
"Ilya Bolotowsky | Large Blue Horizontal" .
^
"Ilya Bolotowsky | MoMA" .
^
"Ilya Bolotowsky | Smithsonian American Art Museum" .
External links
International National Artists Other