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Showing posts from December 22, 2019

Sol Wilson (1896-1974) Expressionist Realist

Mention the name of Sol Wilson in the art world today and you’ll likely get a puzzled look. From the American mid-century, Wilson was one of the best-known artists. He was included in art books and exhibits, with great gallery representation. Today he is still celebrated in Provincetown and other locations along the upper north-east coast. Wilson was man’s artist. He painted the sea, wharves, fishermen and shore-men who worked the pier. These dark broody paintings with his navy-blue brush "sketch-technique" reflected his educational influences. His famous instructors, George Bellows and Robert Henri were instrumental in developing his style of Expressionist Realism. Wilson arrived in America at the age of fifteen from present day Lithuania. He had worked in his father’s lithography shop as a boy. Here in the states, Wilson attended art classes at Cooper Union, the National Academy, and the Ferrer School. This education enhanced his talent and provided the artisti...

Douglas Denniston (1921-2004) Southwest Artist and Educator

1945 started a new beginning for New Mexico, on July 16th was the first test detonation of the atomic bomb, and the state served as stage for young artists that were returning home from World War II.  The New Mexico mountains  had always served as an inspiration and an artist mecca, now it would grow a new generation of artists.  Douglas Denniston arrived 1945, attracted to the Taos School of Painting and the Transcendentalist Art concepts preached by Raymond Jonson, the University of New Mexico Art Professor. It was there Denniston got the opportunity to interact with now famed artists and instructors Agnes Martin, Enrique Montenegro, and Adja Yunkers. All four of these artists influenced and launched Denniston’s historic and varied six decade career in American Modernism and Abstraction.  It was at the University of New Mexico that he shared exhibit space with noted artist Richard Diebenkorn. It was the 1951 Master Theses Show in the Fine Arts Building w...