Untitled (IB 590)
Artist
Ilya Bolotowsky
(American, 1907–1981)
Date1940
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineCharlotte E.W. Buffington Fund
Terms
Object number1999.14
Label TextImmigrating to the United States as a teenager with his parents in 1923, Russian-born Bolotowsky received traditional, figurative art training but was ultimately drawn to the abstract paintings he saw exhibited in New York. A major influence was the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, who favored strict guidelines for abstraction, using only primary colors, straight lines, and rectangular planes in a style known as Neoplasticism. Bolotowsky also claimed a connection with fellow Russian Vassily Kandinsky, saying that both he and Kandinsky used colors found in Byzantine icons.
An active proponent of Neoplasticism, Bolotowsky cofounded the American Abstract Artists group in 1936, and taught the next generation of abstract artists at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, from 1946 to 48.ProvenanceThe artist, to his son, Andrew Bolotowsky. Purchased from ACA Galleries, NYOn View
Not on view
