Jack Perlmutter (1920-2006) Washington Abstract Artist

In NASA's Next Launch: An Art Exhibit, from 2011 NASA featured Jack Perlmutter's painting titled: Lift Off in 15 Seconds. NASA had commissioned Perlmutter to portray Apollo and space shuttle missions in the 1970s and 1980s. His mature works are full of raw color and jagged lines. The Washington Post Art Critic, Leslie Judd Porter, wrote in 1956: "They are so complex in their organization, so over-busy, that they hit the eye like broken glass. And yet you feel the artist's excitement, his love of the rawness, the newness, the beautiful, exciting, crushing city."

Below is an example of one of his over-busy compositions:

"Harbor Along the Potomac" 

Acrylic on Masonite, approximately 20 X 32 inches 

Perlmutter was born in Brooklyn/New York and grew up in the Bronx. He ended up moving to Washington somewhere around 1940 and took a job in the Navy's Hydrographic Office - as a lithographer. He learned the complicated art of lithography by drawing and printing nautical charts. He never attended college for lithography.

During World War II he enlisted in the Navy and stayed in Washington, working at the Hydrographic Office. After the war, he continued to work as a civilian with the Navy until 1959, when he went to Japan on a Fulbright scholarship to study printmaking and to lecture on American art. The yearlong visit to Japan as a Fulbright scholar in 1959-60 introduced Perlmutter to new printmaking techniques, and he began to incorporate elements of Japanese design into his work.

While still working for the government, he was on the faculty of the old Wilson Teachers College in the District, and he also served as an art curator at the Cosmos Club. Upon returning from his Tokyo Fellowship to Washington, he joined the faculty of the Corcoran School of Art. He was Chairman of the Graphics/Printmaking Department until 1982. He remained an active artist well into his eighties.

His work can be found in dozens of museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Phillips Collection, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Below are the details of "Harbor Along the Potomac"

Painting Detail of a Ferry:  

Signature Example :


Below is a painting example where he uses Raw Color:

"Purple Rain" 

Acrylic on Masonite - Approximately 18 X 24 

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Special thanks goes out to the Washington Post and Who's Who in American Art where I used their information, sometimes directly.

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©2017. Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art is a research collaborative, working to track artists that got lost and overlooked due to time, changing styles, race, gender and/or sexual orientation. Our frequent blogs highlight artists and art movements that need renewed attention with improved information for the researcher and art collectors. The photos and blog was created by Mr. Waller and all written materials were obtained by the Fair Use Section 107, of The Copyright Act. #waller-yoblonskyblogspot #walleryoblonskyblogspot #jackperlmutter