Press Release:
It is with great pride that we present this array of wonderful works on paper from the Flomenhaft Gallery Collection. Over many years the works were acquired by Eleanor Flomenhaft, Director, while she was a museum director and curator. Her personally organized exhibitions have travelled to over 60 museums in the United States, Russia, Japan, France, the Netherlands, and Mexico. She curated many exhibitions of African American and women artists which travelled to 29 museums. Flomenhaft Gallery can boast that we show more of both African American and women artists than most galleries. Several works on paper from our African American collection are included in this exhibition including works by Romare Bearden, Benny Andrew and Jacob Lawrence. An extensive exhibition of works from the gallery’s African American collection will follow in October.
Flomenhaft wrote the first book on CoBrA Art in the English language called “The Roots and Development of CoBrA Art.” For those not acquainted with CoBrA, it was the leading avant-garde, abstract expressionist, experimental movement formed by talented artists of post World War II Europe. The name is an acronym from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam; the capitals of the countries which birthed these artists. The exhibit includes works by the leader of the movement Asger Jorn, from Denmark. Also included are Carl Henning Pedersen, artist and poet from Denmark; Pierre Alechinsky, from Belgium; and Eugene Brands, from Holland. Jean Dubuffet, from France, also included in the exhibit, was a great friend of the CoBrA artists. Art of children and the insane inspired many of Dubuffet’s work as well as a great deal of CoBrA art.
Other exciting works included in this exhibit are by Siona Benjamin, who was born in India and will represent the Flomenhaft Gallery in the Jerusalem Bienalle in the Fall of 2015; Amy Ernst, granddaughter of Max Ernst, daughter of Jimmy Ernst, and a remarkable artist in her own right; and David Burliuk, who was born in the Ukraine but later lived in the Hamptons of Long Island. Burliuk is spoken of as the “Father of Russian Futurism,” and was well known as a Neo-Primitivist. He participated in the Blaue Reiter Exhibit in Munich, 1913. Work by Jacob El Hanani and William Gropper will also be included in the exhibition. El Hanani recently had a magical exhibit at Acquavella Gallery, New York. His is the ancient art of microscopically detailed ink on paper. He has been inspired by Albrecht Durer and minimalism. In the 1930s Gropper, a radical cartoonist, realist and pictorial satirist, dedicated his art to raise popular opposition to fascism in Europe. Work by Roberto Matta, Chilean born surrealist, known to exhibit internal and external images, blending abstract figures and cosmic space, and Marino Marini, an Italian sculptor born in 1901, will also be in the exhibition. Marini is best known for his horses and riders; a watercolor of this subject beautifully rendered by Marini will be displayed.
Also included in the exhibition is a touching watercolor by Moses Soyer, a social realist who was born in Russia but lived in America most of his life. He studied art under the Ashcan painters Robert Henri and George Bellows, and taught art at the New School. Joseph Stella’s extremely sensitive self portrait will be exhibited. Stella was born in Italy, but in America he was considered an American Futurist. He is best known for his depictions of industrial America especially of the Brooklyn Bridge. We are also very excited to show superb prints by Japanese American artist, Roger Shimomura, who was in an internment camp as a young boy. The prints hearken back to that time in his life. His works were recently seen in a very successful exhibition at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., which acquired one of his major works, and in the inaugural exhibition at the new Whitney Museum, New York.
It is with great pride that we present this array of wonderful works on paper from the Flomenhaft Gallery Collection. Over many years the works were acquired by Eleanor Flomenhaft, Director, while she was a museum director and curator. Her personally organized exhibitions have travelled to over 60 museums in the United States, Russia, Japan, France, the Netherlands, and Mexico. She curated many exhibitions of African American and women artists which travelled to 29 museums. Flomenhaft Gallery can boast that we show more of both African American and women artists than most galleries. Several works on paper from our African American collection are included in this exhibition including works by Romare Bearden, Benny Andrew and Jacob Lawrence. An extensive exhibition of works from the gallery’s African American collection will follow in October.
Flomenhaft wrote the first book on CoBrA Art in the English language called “The Roots and Development of CoBrA Art.” For those not acquainted with CoBrA, it was the leading avant-garde, abstract expressionist, experimental movement formed by talented artists of post World War II Europe. The name is an acronym from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam; the capitals of the countries which birthed these artists. The exhibit includes works by the leader of the movement Asger Jorn, from Denmark. Also included are Carl Henning Pedersen, artist and poet from Denmark; Pierre Alechinsky, from Belgium; and Eugene Brands, from Holland. Jean Dubuffet, from France, also included in the exhibit, was a great friend of the CoBrA artists. Art of children and the insane inspired many of Dubuffet’s work as well as a great deal of CoBrA art.
Other exciting works included in this exhibit are by Siona Benjamin, who was born in India and will represent the Flomenhaft Gallery in the Jerusalem Bienalle in the Fall of 2015; Amy Ernst, granddaughter of Max Ernst, daughter of Jimmy Ernst, and a remarkable artist in her own right; and David Burliuk, who was born in the Ukraine but later lived in the Hamptons of Long Island. Burliuk is spoken of as the “Father of Russian Futurism,” and was well known as a Neo-Primitivist. He participated in the Blaue Reiter Exhibit in Munich, 1913. Work by Jacob El Hanani and William Gropper will also be included in the exhibition. El Hanani recently had a magical exhibit at Acquavella Gallery, New York. His is the ancient art of microscopically detailed ink on paper. He has been inspired by Albrecht Durer and minimalism. In the 1930s Gropper, a radical cartoonist, realist and pictorial satirist, dedicated his art to raise popular opposition to fascism in Europe. Work by Roberto Matta, Chilean born surrealist, known to exhibit internal and external images, blending abstract figures and cosmic space, and Marino Marini, an Italian sculptor born in 1901, will also be in the exhibition. Marini is best known for his horses and riders; a watercolor of this subject beautifully rendered by Marini will be displayed.
Also included in the exhibition is a touching watercolor by Moses Soyer, a social realist who was born in Russia but lived in America most of his life. He studied art under the Ashcan painters Robert Henri and George Bellows, and taught art at the New School. Joseph Stella’s extremely sensitive self portrait will be exhibited. Stella was born in Italy, but in America he was considered an American Futurist. He is best known for his depictions of industrial America especially of the Brooklyn Bridge. We are also very excited to show superb prints by Japanese American artist, Roger Shimomura, who was in an internment camp as a young boy. The prints hearken back to that time in his life. His works were recently seen in a very successful exhibition at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., which acquired one of his major works, and in the inaugural exhibition at the new Whitney Museum, New York.