Clyfford Still

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Clyfford Still (born November 30, 1904 in Grandin , North Dakota , † June 23, 1980 in New York ) was an American painter . It is assigned to the style of Abstract Expressionism .

Biography and work

After graduating from the University of Spokane in 1933, he taught painting , art history and aesthetics at Washington State University in Pullman until 1941 .

In the mid-1930s, Clyfford Still had already begun to paint semi-abstract pictures, and in the following years developed his painting style more and more towards abstraction . From 1941 to 1943, Clyfford Still worked in the defense industry in California and continued teaching in Richmond , Virginia from 1943 to 1945 . He then moved to New York, where he became friends with Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko .

His paintings, which he now painted in the abstract expressionist style, were presented for the first time in a solo exhibition in the New York gallery Art of This Century by Peggy Guggenheim . This exhibition made Clyfford Still known and famous.

His next teaching led him for the years 1946 to 1950 by San Francisco to the Californian School of Fine Arts, which in 1961 San Francisco Art Institute was renamed. He then returned to New York for eleven years, where he lived increasingly isolated and from 1952 to 1958 even refused all public exhibitions of his works. In 1959, Clyfford Still was a participant in documenta II in Kassel . In 1961 the painter, who is classified as one of the most important representatives of Abstract Expressionism, withdrew to the US state of Maryland in order to be able to work in peace, far away from the art world.

The artistic loner Still rejected exhibitions of his works almost without exception, and he reduced sales of paintings to a minimum. He saw the aura of the work, its “life-giving power” as endangered. So it happens that only a few museums in Europe own works by the artist.

museum

Clyfford Still Museum

On November 18, 2011, the Clyfford Still Museum , designed by the American architect Brad Cloepfil , opened in Denver , Colorado . To finance the museum, the city of Denver auctioned four paintings from Patricia Still's estate in a controversial auction at Sotheby’s in November 2011 , which brought the city a record sum of 114 million dollars. In addition to the PH 89 (1949-A.No.1) , which achieved the top price of 61.7 million dollars, the pictures PH-351 (1940), PH-584 (1947) and PH-1033 (1976) were auctioned .

The museum manages the entire estate of Clyfford Still, including 94% of his paintings. According to Clyfford Still's will, there is no shop or museum café in the museum, and the pictures cannot be borrowed.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions on Abstract Expressionism
  • 1999 rebors . La rebelion informalista 1939–1968; Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderna, Cabildo de Gran Canaria;
Traveling exhibition on Abstract Expressionism

Awards and honors

bibliography

  • Clyfford Still (catalog). Marlborough-Gerson Gallery Inc., New York 1969, cat. No. 41, ill. P. 80/81.
  • Thomas Kellein (catalog): Clyfford Still: 1904–1980 , Prestel, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7913-1198-0 .
  • Justus Jonas-Edel: Clyfford Still's image of the self and of the absolute . Dissertation at the University of Cologne , 1992. Cologne 1995.
  • Irving Sandler: Pintura estadounidense, expresionismo abstracto . (Catalog), Centro Cultural / Arte contemporneo. Mexico City 1996, cat.no.107, illus. P. 529
  • Dore Ashton et al .: rebors. La rebelion informalista 1939–1968 (catalog), Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderna, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 1999, ill. P. 287

Web links

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Clifford Still Museum , www.clyffordstillmuseum.org, accessed 8 October 2011
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ Guggenheim Collection online; Clyfford Still ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on May 4, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.guggenheim.org
personal data
SURNAME Still, Clyfford
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American painter
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Grandin , North Dakota
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 1980
Place of death New York City