M I LTON R E S N IC K PA I N T I NGS 1937–1987
PA I N T I NGS 1937–1987 T H E M I LTON R E S N IC K A N D PAT PA S S LOF FOU N DAT ION
M I LTON R E S N ICK T H E M I LTON R E S N IC K A N D PAT PA S SLOF FOU N DAT ION
M I LTON R E S N ICK
PA I N T I NGS 1937–1987
T H E M I LTON R E S N IC K A N D PAT PA S SLOF FOU N DAT ION
With this survey exhibition of fifty years of Milton Resnick’s paintings, the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation celebrates Resnick’s centenary and inaugurates its exhibition space, housed in Resnick’s former studio building in lower Manhattan. The exhibition, curated by Geoffrey Dorfman, is drawn primarily from the Foundation’s holdings, with additional loans from museum and private collections. Future exhibitions at the Foundation will include a survey of paintings by Pat Passlof and exhibitions of work by other painters working in the Abstract Expressionist tradition, very broadly defined. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Pat Passlof. Trustees of the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation Geoffrey Dorfman Stephanie E. Heilborn Tracey Jones Nathan Kernan Foundation Director Susan Reynolds
Milton Resnick Paintings 1937–1987 Nathan Kernan “Paint, that’s all I have. I only have paint.” –Milton Resnick
M
ilton Resnick was in some ways the quintessential Abstract Expressionist painter, yet he pushed beyond that visual language
to create works of sublime beauty which defy classification and continue to astonish. The trajectory of his career was unusual. One of the original group of Abstract Expressionists working in downtown New York in the 1930s and 1940s, Resnick would become a well-known figure during the movement’s heyday in the 1950s. In the 1960s his work expanded, both literally and imagistically, into extremely large, lyrical canvases filled with air and color. Over the following decades Resnick developed an obsession with the material of paint itself, which led to the thickly painted, imageless canvases for which he is best known. In the last decade of his long life, Resnick introduced quasi-allegorical figures into his work in seeming contradiction to all he had previously said and believed about painting. He arrived at this position, as he arrived at every previous one, through a permanent condition of doubt and self-questioning. “I wore out every conclusion I could come to,” he said.
Milton Resnick, c. 1975
Milton Resnick was born Rachmiel Resnick
recommended he transfer to a fine art school.3 He
in 1917 in the Ukrainian town of Bratslav, amid
enrolled in the American Artists School in the fall of
a world about to be torn apart by the Russian
1933. When his father learned that he intended to be
Revolution and Civil War. His family was Jewish, his
a fine artist he kicked him out of the house. Cut off
grandfather and father successful builders. From his
financially by his family, he became the elevator and
childhood Resnick retained lifelong memories of the
errand boy at the school in exchange for tuition and
marauding Red and White armies coming and going,
a little room in the basement to paint in. He sold his
of bodies lying in the streets: “They would pull
blood, modeled, “did anything to keep alive.”4
people out and shoot them.”1 His father went into
hiding to avoid being pressed into military service.
radical and socialist causes, and Social Realism was
By bribing authorities, the family, now including
ascendant there. However, political radicalism did
Resnick’s sister Ethel, born in 1920, managed to
not entirely preclude formal radicalism, and several
leave for America in 1922, via Romania, Paris and
Modernist painters, including Stuart Davis, Max
Cuba. A second sister, Zelda, was born in Cuba a
Weber and Francis Criss, taught there or were on
few months before they finally arrived in New York.
the board (as was Meyer Schapiro). Ad Reinhardt
They settled in Brooklyn, where Rachmiel, his
was a fellow student. Soon Resnick met another
name now anglicized to Milton, entered public
young artist named Elaine Fried. She transferred
school. Speaking only Russian, he spent first grade
to the American Artists School and they became
sitting at the back of the room copying the alphabet.
lovers. For a while in the 1930s, Resnick shared a
“I didn’t know what it was, I only knew I had to make
loft with Fried and her friend Ernestine Blumberg
an A, B, C and make it stay on the same line . . . ”2
(later Lassaw).
With the presumption that he would follow his
The American Artists School was associated with
Resnick often told a story of an encounter at the
father into the building trade, Milton was enrolled
school with the Precisionist painter Francis Criss,
in the Hebrew Technical Institute near Astor Place to
one of the few instructors he admired. Resnick
learn architectural drafting and lettering. By the time
asked Criss to visit his small basement studio to
he graduated in 1932, the Depression had brought
see the painting he was working on, which was, he
construction to a standstill, so Milton decided to
recalled, “a little like Soutine.”5 Criss looked, and
go to Pratt Institute to become a commercial artist,
pointing to one detail in the painting said, “There’s
“because that seemed a practical idea.” A teacher
something wrong here.” “And I said thanks, and he
there saw his drawings after Rembrandt etchings
left,” Resnick recalled. “And I painted that space
(“I didn’t really like his paintings but I liked his
out, and there was my picture. And the thing about
drawings, his etchings, and I’d copy them”) and
that was that I was saving that little place. I thought
Fig. 1 Milton Resnick with his family in Bratslav, Ukraine, 1922, shortly before emigration. Top row (left to right): uncle Davis Stepanovsky (Stephens), his wife Charna (Aunt Jenny), uncle Nathan Munchnik; Middle row: father Mikhail (Michael) Resnick, grandfather Hersh (Harry) Muchnik, grandmother Feiga, mother Malca (pregnant with sister Zelda); Front row: cousin Sonia Stepanovsky, sister Ethel Resnick; Reclining front; Rachmiel (Milton) Resnick
that was the best place. So that’s a very good lesson:
understand it. And that’s why I kept working, in a
always paint out the best place. It’s like your ghost:
sense, so that I could somehow make up for what
you have to get at your ghosts and paint them out.”6
I’ve already wasted. To get to the point where, if I
Resnick would continue to apply this lesson, in one
could only see what I can do now, that can make what
way or another, for the rest of his life. It would lead
I’ve already done something. So it always seemed to
to a constant self-questioning and a paradoxical
me: I’m reaching but I’m never getting where I can
situation in which the very idea of “success,” however
make myself feel good about what I’ve done.”7
temporary or illusory, became a kind of failure, or
If Resnick’s mature paintings can appear
at least a sign to move on, to take things one step
“irrefutable”—to borrow the extemporaneous
further. Every painting became a way of trying to
response of a dreadlocked young artist viewing a
vindicate—or retroactively justify—the previous
survey of Resnick monochrome paintings in 2014—
one: a Sisyphean task, as Resnick realized. He said,
that may be because they have withstood his own
“Half the time I thought: something’s wrong. I can’t
attempts to refute them over and over and over.
On leaving the American Artists School, Resnick
member. Resnick, like most, was still painting in
became part of a group of painters and friends
a figurative mode in the 1930s. For a short time
living and working downtown, including Willem
in 1938, he was in the easel painting division of
de Kooning, whom he met in 1938, Arshile Gorky,
the WPA Federal Art Project, which provided an
John Graham, Ibram Lassaw, Landes Lewitin and
income for professional artists. At twenty-one,
many others. Although some of these figures were
Resnick was one of the youngest.
older, such as Graham and Gorky, age differences
seemed irrelevant compared to the sense of
the pencil study Portrait, 1938 [pl. 2], are among
comradeship and shared purpose among painters
the few surviving Resnick works from the 1930s.
exploring new ideas.
Nat is a portrait of his friend Nat Becker, cut down
It was a heady, fast-moving time and excitement
from a larger group portrait of jazz musicians. The
was “in the air,” Resnick later recalled. “We’d be
subject of Young Girl and its pencil study cannot be
carried by some wind.” “There was a quickening:
identified. How representative of his overall work
the sense that a day might make a difference,” as Pat
of the period these portraits are is unclear, but
Passlof put it.8 Artists would meet in the evenings
presumably they are similar to work Resnick was
at the Waldorf Cafeteria at Sixth Avenue and
doing while on the Federal Art Project. In mood
Eighth Street for ongoing discussions about art—
and in their sensitive, pared-down modeling, Young
discussions that were the forerunner of the post-war
Girl and Nat share qualities with de Kooning’s and
Artists’ Club, of which Resnick would be a founding
Gorky’s portraits of the late 1930s.
Fig. 2 Rembrandt van Rijn, The Woman with the Arrow, etching, 1665 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Fig. 3 Francis Criss, Second Avenue El, c. 1933, gouache and graphite on paper mounted on paperboard, 7 x 7 ¾ inches. The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation, New York. © Estate of Francis Criss
Nat, 1937 [pl. 1], Young Girl, 1938 [fig. 4], and
In 1940, Resnick’s life was thrown off course
when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. A year later the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war, and Resnick remained in uniform through most of World War II. When he finally returned to New York in the fall of 1945 it was to a different city than the one he had left. The wartime influx of European refugee artists and dealers had transformed New York into a vibrant center of modern art, while shows at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century and Julien Levy Gallery had placed American abstract painters Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky in a context of advanced European painting.
Resnick resumed his pre-war friendship with de
Kooning, quickly caught up with the abstract works he and others had been making during the war, and began painting abstractions himself. In elegant works such as Untitled, 1945 [pl. 3], Untitled, 1946 [pl. 5], and Untitled, 1948 [pl. 6], drawing creates and dominates an imagery based on interlocking biomorphic and rectangular forms, sometimes rendered in what art critic Thomas Hess later called “neon” colors. There are strong family resemblances between Resnick’s and de Kooning’s paintings of the early post-war years. Working closely together at this time, they were in each other’s studios almost every day. In 1946 the pair collaborated on painting Labyrinth, an enormous backdrop for a dance performance by Marie Marchowsky. De Kooning provided the original sketch, a work on paper entitled Judgment Day [fig. 6]; Resnick enlarged it
Fig. 4 Milton Resnick, Young Girl, 1938, oil on canvas, 27 x 20 inches Resnick Family Collection
in poster paint to full size on canvas [fig. 7], and de Kooning added drawing in paint on top of that. The size—10 x 16 feet—foreshadows Resnick’s later very large paintings (a direction de Kooning never took).
De Kooning and Resnick’s comradeship in those
years was interwoven with their relationships with women. Elaine Fried, Resnick’s early girlfriend, had split up with him before the war and moved in with de Kooning, eventually marrying him and changing her name to Elaine de Kooning. A little bit later, in 1948, it was de Kooning who introduced Resnick to his student Pat Passlof. Resnick and de Kooning’s friendship, however, suffered an irrevocable breach in 1961.
In 1946, Resnick returned to Europe and lived in
Paris for two years, painting and ostensibly studying Fig. 5 Milton Resnick wearing his U.S. Army uniform, c. 1945
at the Académie Julian on the G.I. Bill. His studio on the rue de Seine was next door to that of the German photographer and painter Wols, and he became friendly with him and with Jean Hélion, Constantin Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti, among others. In a café the poet Tristan Tzara perspicaciously told him, “The trouble with you is you don’t know that art is a commodity.”9 Unfortunately, all the canvases Resnick painted in Paris at this time were left behind with a friend and have been lost. Commodity, indeed. When he returned to New York in August of 1948, de Kooning had also just returned from a summer teaching at Black Mountain College, bringing with him a young student of his, Passlof. De Kooning introduced her to Resnick, calling him “the man he respected more than any other.” She and Resnick would later become lovers and eventually marry.
Fig. 6 Willem de Kooning, Judgment Day, 1946, oil and charcoal on paper, 22 1/8 x 23 ⅜ inches Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, From the Collection of Thomas B. Hess, Gift of the heirs of Thomas B. Hess, 1984
Fig. 7 Milton Resnick with Labyrinth when it was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., in “Art at Mid-Century,” curated by William C. Seitz, 1973
Fig. 8 Milton Resnick’s Paris studio, 21 rue de Seine, 1947
By 1948, commercial attention was beginning to
There is an unexplained gap in Resnick’s known
be paid to the downtown abstract painters, and that
output, from 1950 to 1953. Subsequently, in 1953,
spring de Kooning had his first solo exhibition, at
Resnick began to experience symptoms of what
the age of 44, at the Charles Egan Gallery. Although
would prove to be intestinal cancer, for which he
not a commercial success, it was a watershed event
was successfully operated on in California two
for de Kooning and downtown painters. Egan also
years later. In 1955, Resnick moved west to teach
scheduled a show for Resnick in 1949 and took
painting at the University of California, Berkeley, for
some paintings in advance, which he then could not
the 1955–1956 academic term. During that time
account for. A disagreement ensued and Resnick
Resnick’s first solo exhibition—and first museum
cancelled the show. Most probably the Untitled
exhibition—“Oil Painting by Milton Resnick,” was
painting from 1949 [pl. 7], now in the collection
held at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum.
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and another
Untitled work from 1948 [fig. 11], now in a private
downtown since the late 1930s—he was a central
collection, are representative of the paintings that
figure in discussions at the Waldorf Cafeteria, the
would have been in this show.
Artists’ Club and the Cedar Bar, and had helped
Though he had been a much respected painter
Fig. 9 Milton Resnick and Willem de Kooning in Resnick’s studio, 88 East Tenth Street, 1960
organize the famous “9th Street Exhibition of
romantic good looks and pithy pronouncements
Paintings and Sculpture” in 1951—Resnick’s first
made him and a “go-to” figure for journalists seeking
solo show in New York, at the Poindexter Gallery,
statements or images of the quintessential Abstract
took place only in 1955. This relatively late debut
Expressionist painter. In 1957, a feature article,
(exhibiting recent paintings) has led some to group
“Resnick Paints a Picture” (part of a well-known
him mistakenly with the so-called second generation
series) appeared in ARTnews, and he was a frequent
of Abstract Expressionists. Resnick himself did little
and fiercely opinionated contributor to discussions
to clarify matters by taking a principled stand against
in print and at the Artists’ Club.
all such superficial comparisons and classifications,
stating in 1962, “I am not an action painter. I am not
mid-1950s, the idiom of discrete interrelated shapes
an Abstract Expressionist. I am not younger than
characteristic of his paintings of the late 1940s is
anybody or older.”10
carried forward, but with important differences:
Resnick had several shows in quick succession at
the shapes begin to be more often rectangular than
Poindexter, and was frequently featured in ARTnews
biomorphic, and rather than melding fluidly into one
and other magazines, throughout the 1950s. His
another, tend to separate into isolated blocks. Most
In Resnick’s beautifully made abstractions of the
obviously the paint application is much thicker and
Three paintings from 1958—Music Lesson [pl.
rougher, more “painterly,” almost brutally so. Paint
13], Runaway [pl.14] and Sweet Potato [pl.15]—stand
itself is the protagonist, alive and driven by urgent
between the earlier 1950s paintings and the stylistic
necessity. No longer does the paint merely describe
shift he would make the following year. In each of
predetermined forms, but rather it seems to force
them a sense of struggle and risk-taking, verging on
images to arise spontaneously through the action of
irresolution, is apparent. In Runaway and especially
brush on canvas. The palette too has evolved, from
Sweet Potato, straight dark lines demarcate areas of
the earlier flat and bright colors to a moody, earthy
the painting, almost diagramatically or like a floor
range resulting from mixing directly on the canvas:
plan or plumbing map, recalling Resnick’s heritage
ambiguous browns and ochres, muddy greens, sharp
as one of a family of builders (he did much of the
reds, sour yellows.
plumbing and carpentry in his own and friends’
In paintings like Freehold, 1957 [pl. 11], and
studios over the years) and create an interplay
Untitled, 1957 [pl. 12] combating forms sometimes
between the retention of “solid” or enclosed
seem to exist in order to cancel each other out, to
forms and a dispersion into overall brushwork. In
balance or draw attention from other forms that may
Music Lesson the tension between “structure” and
be in danger of becoming too prominent. Thomas
“atmosphere” is most apparent, with the latter
Hess, who himself owned the Untitled painting
clearly in the ascendant. There are still shapes, and
from 1954 [pl. 9], emphasized the sense of balance
the painting is still composed around relationships
in these works when he wrote of them in ARTnews,
between them, but their boundaries are softened,
“If Cubist paintings have armatures, Resnick’s have
and they have become less important than the field
musculatures: hard balances soft, tension implies
of brushstrokes they’re now part of. The next step
equal and opposite relaxation.”11
would be for the individual strokes of paint, instead of being used as elements to form—or eradicate—a shape, themselves to be, or replace, the shape.
The paintings of 1959 mark a further departure.
In pictures such as Boston [pl. 17] and Whelan [pl. 18], and many others, discrete images have all but disappeared, replaced by clusters of disparate brushstrokes. The marks seem to move in a state of perpetual flux and insubstantiality. The casual nonchalance and looseness of the marks, and the way Fig. 10 Pat Passlof, Untitled, c. 1950, oil on paper, 22 ½ x 28 inches. Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation
they seem to drift indecisively first in one direction
Fig. 11 Milton Resnick, Untitled, 1948, enamel, paper and collage on canvas, 37 x 45 inches
Fig. 12 Artists and friends gathered in Resnick’s Tenth Street studio, c. 1958. Clockwise from left: Irving Sandler, James Rosati, George Spaventa, Pat Passlof, Milton Resnick, Earl Kerkam, Angelo Ippolito, Ludwig Sander, Elaine de Kooning, Al Kotin; foreground: Unknown. Photograph by James Burke
then dart in another, make a striking contrast to the
taut, “muscular,” paintings of the mid-1950s. It is as
Broadway when he saw a sign advertising a “5000
though Resnick were trying not only to “paint out”
square foot light loft” for rent. It intrigued him: what
that earlier body of work, but at the same time to
did it mean, a “light loft”? What did 5000-square-
make something as unlike what Thomas Hess liked
feet look like? The two words, “light” and “loft,”
about it as possible.
seemed to speak directly, if cryptically, to feelings of
To poet James Schuyler, writing in ARTnews
levitation he was ambitious for in his paintings. The
about Resnick’s 1960 show at Howard Wise Gallery,
studio had eight skylights and windows all the way
what was most striking about this group of paintings
across the front. “This is a dream. Oh, if I could only
was the atomization, as it were, of imagery, which
paint here,” he thought. He decided to rent it.
he associated with a joyful release: “The emblems
and compositional structures are gone, he has
to paint much bigger works than he had before,
revolutionized his style by concentrating on the
and made it easier to work on several paintings at a
smallest element, the stroke—in the name of joy
time. The paintings Resnick made there, with their
or beauty.”12
approximate dimensions, include: Swan [pl. 23], 10
One day in 1959 Resnick was walking on lower
The new studio at 811 Broadway enabled Resnick
Fig. 13 Fashion shoot from Mademoiselle magazine, showing Milton Resnick in his Tenth Street studio, working on Model, 1958
Fig. 14 Milton Resnick on the roof of 88 East Tenth Street with Storage, 1958
x 25 feet; Tilt to the Land, 10 x 16 feet; East Is the
see them. . . . You only see what’s right in front of
Place, 10 x 16 feet; Here I Remember, 10 x 16 feet; All
you. There has to be a way in which you understand
Day Long [pl. 19], 10 x 16 feet; Mound [pl. 24], 10 x
what you’re doing when you can’t see. So that has
16 feet; Ghost, 10 x 16 feet; Botany, 8 ½ x 14 ½ feet;
to be the feeling you can carry. . . . To hold that
Wheel, 8 x 6 ½ feet, and others [fig. 15].
feeling you have to give up something. You give up
Resnick had already begun to make large
yourself. So that the painting is really not so much
paintings in his old studio on Tenth Street. At first
you, which a lot of people think, but the painting is
the problem seemed to be that he could not get back
telling you.”14
far enough from the painting to see what he was
The great size of these paintings is perhaps
doing without constantly walking across the studio.
their most obvious characteristic, but not for that
However, he came to realize that his inability to take
reason their least interesting one. Because of it, the
in the entire picture at once might actually be a good
paintings have a relationship not just to our eyes but
thing, “that it is not so much getting back to look at
our whole body, indeed, are “seen” bodily almost
it, as how you work when you can’t see it.”13 “The
as much as optically. Several of their titles contain
reason I painted those big paintings is that I couldn’t
references to geography or location: (Tilt to the
Fig. 15 Milton Resnick in his studio at 811 Broadway, c. 1960
Land, East Is the Place, Here I Remember), as if the artist
to stop painting, and bought new suits and walked
were reminding himself that the very size of these
around like I was not a painter any more.”16 He
paintings makes them places in themselves—though
gave up the Broadway studio, married his longtime
not landscapes. “It isn’t canvas that you approach for
companion Pat Passlof, and together they travelled
your focusing. It is a place,” said Resnick. “And this
in Europe. After a few restless months they returned
place can be, by coincidence, where your canvas is.
to New York, where Resnick took a studio on
. . . A very important part of this whole thing lies
Spruce Street near City Hall, well away from Tenth
in whether this canvas, which becomes this place—
Street and any of his friends’ studios. He did not
also becomes a world.”15
know how or whether to begin painting again, but
The burst of energy and inspiration in which
he did begin, telling himself he had to “learn how to
this extraordinary group of paintings was created—
paint . . . begin all over again.” He ordered another
and the acclaim with which they were generally
gigantic canvas, 9 x 17 ½ feet, and the first thing he
received—did not come without personal cost.
did was paint it entirely blue. “And then I thought,
In 1961, Resnick suffered what he described as a
Well I don’t like blue, I’ll make it white, and so I
breakdown: “I thought I was going to die and I had
bought a hundred tubes of Permalba white, and then
I just squeezed it on and brushed it on, and just any
now I have no shape, no lines—paint that’s all I have.
old thing. And then it seemed to me that I was doing
I only have paint.”18
something but I wasn’t sure what it was, but I needed
For a twenty-five-year period, from about
more white, so I bought another hundred tubes and
1963 to 1988, Resnick painted seemingly
another hundred tubes, and then it seemed to me
“monochromatic” works that were never truly
that I couldn’t take my eye off the picture because
monochromatic but composed of as many colors
if I did I’d fall. So I used to take the cap off the tube
as one could imagine, resolving into the impression
and throw it on the floor and step on it, and then
of a single predominant hue. In these radical and
reach down with the brush to paint with. And finally
romantic paintings, without “movement, motion
I stopped.”17 The resulting painting, which Resnick
or time,” as he put it, Resnick’s preoccupation with
finished in 1963, was the extraordinary, all-white
the physical stuff of paint is most explicit. They are
New Bride [pl. 25, fig. 16].
as silent, stoic, mineral—indeed irrefutable—as
New Bride was exhibited just once in NewYork, at
natural phenomena. The paint is often, but not
Howard Wise Gallery in 1964, after which it entered
invariably, very thick on these canvases, bringing
a private collection. The painting was subsequently
sheer weight—up to and over three hundred
acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum
pounds—into the equation. (In fact, by about
in 1980 and has remained in Washington, D.C., but
1979 Resnick was going through such enormous
seldom on view, ever since. Now, fifty-three years
quantities of oil paint that he bought a three-roll
after it was last seen in New York, New Bride will
mill and a pony mixer and began to make his own.)
return for the present exhibition, and continue to be
Massive and dark as they often are, paradoxically the
on public view at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof
paintings can also appear insubstantial in a way, to
Foundation on long term loan.
levitate or project forward, as though the picture
In New Bride and the paintings that would
plane were actually a few inches in front of the actual
follow, Resnick followed Francis Criss’s advice—
surface. Many believe that these numinous paintings
and arguably the Abstract Expressionist impulse as
are the works on which Resnick’s reputation will
well—to its logical, albeit radical conclusion: the
ultimately rest.
elimination of all, or apparently all, imagery. “You
put [down] shapes and they become familiar. And I
series, painted within a two or three year period:
spent a long time thinking, I don’t want those shapes,
Roswell, 1970–71; Hawkeye, 1971–72; Edna, 1973–74
why are they there? . . . And if you know something
[pl. 27, pl. 28]; Planets, 1975–76; Elephant, 1979–83
about my work you know that those shapes just fell
[pl. 35, pl. 38]; Straws, 1981–83 [pl. 36]. The titles
apart. Little by little, I ate away the shape . . . so that
derive arbitrarily from biographical happenstance
Often the works were grouped by the artist into
Fig. 16 Milton Resnick in his Spruce Street studio standing front of New Bride, 1963. Photograph © Robert A. Ellison
or offhand suggestions, yet as with the Straws,
Eldridge Street studio, now the home of the Milton
Elephant or Planets series they can trigger intriguing
Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, Resnick painted
(if ultimately misleading) associations. “Edna,” for
the Elephant and the Straws series and subsequent works.
example, was the name on a small disused headstone
Beginning in the late 1980s, Resnick would
found in a shed on property upstate where Resnick
sometimes join Passlof in her studio to paint from a
was then living. The name called to him and
hired model. What started as an infrequent activity
whenever he passed the stone he asked himself,
eventually became a complete about-face, migrating
“Edna, who are you?” The Edna paintings are all the
from paper onto canvas. To paint the figure even
same size, 7 x 4 feet, about “the size of a door.” In
casually is to be brought almost against one’s will
a statement that could also apply to other series,
into a centuries-old Western tradition of figure
Resnick said that in painting them he wanted to
painting, complete with biblical and mythological
test “how far do I have to go before it is so dense, so
subject matter that held a long-buried fascination
compact nothing will escape?” As he kept adding paint
for Resnick. Perhaps he recalled his early love for
he told himself, “I’m not going to stop until there is
the drawings and etchings of Rembrandt. By the
no more getting in between yet staying open”19
early 1990s, overturning all he had said, thought
In 1963, Resnick and Passlof bought a former
and strenuously believed for decades about ridding
storefront synagogue building on Forsyth Street,
his painting of imagery, and with perhaps a final,
between Grand and Hester Streets, which they
inverted nod to Francis Criss’s long-ago advice,
renovated to provide living quarters and large
Resnick had made a surprising and poignant return
studios for both of them. They lived and painted
to imagery—figural imagery at that. In paintings
here together until 1971, when Resnick temporarily
based on the story of Genesis, and in single-figure
left New York, and moved to a small town in the
sphinx paintings, the human figure is brought
Catskills. Returning to New York and Passlof in
golem-like into being out of paint: flickering from
about 1975, Resnick found another deconsecrated
within the agitated, responsive paint surface that
synagogue around the corner from Passlof at 87
still occupies the greater part of the canvas. The
Eldridge Street, which he renovated as his studio
late, figurative work will be the subject of future
and home. Reflecting on their fifty-two-year
exhibitions at the Foundation.
relationship, Passlof later wrote, “There is no way I
can put into words what Milton meant to me. We
arthritis and no longer able to stand for long periods
were incompatible but couldn’t manage without
to paint on canvas, Resnick retreated to his bedroom
one another.”20 The pair joked that they now lived
on the third-floor mezzanine, using a tiny closet
and worked in “back-to-back synagogues.” In the
there as his studio [fig. 17]. Measuring 6 ½ by under
Toward the end of his life, plagued by painful
Fig. 17 Milton Resnick’s last studio, 87 Eldridge Street, 2013. Photos © Midge Wattles, 2013
9 feet, it was just large enough for him to sit down and make paintings on paper. Between 1998 and his suicide in 2004 Resnick worked there every day to create thousands of paintings on paper, most of them figurative, in gouache, oil and acrylic. This final studio has been preserved by the Foundation as he left it. Resnick was also a poet. He published two collections of verse in the early 1960s, and read at Café Le Metro and Les Deux Mégots, the forerunners of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, later in the decade. He continued to write to the end of his life. The following stanza comes near the end of a long poem written in about 1995:
Art is old making faces with paint for eve and a hundred favorites of solomon was
not new
but art cannot escape changes when adam the cursed clown ran out hurt blame god for art blame the cube of cezanne who did not expect abstract art at last earth and sky separated walls tremble the song ended a door opened by itself the silence was terrible
Notes 1 Milton Resnick, in conversation with the author, December 11, 1997, and subsequently. 2 ibid. 3 ibid. 4 Geoffrey Dorfman, Out of the Picture: Milton Resnick and the New York School (New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 2003), p. 14. 5 ibid., p. 17. 6 Transcription of a public interview with Milton Resnick and B. C. Holland at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, April 25, 1988, unpublished. (Hereafter “Chicago.”) p. 1. 7 ibid., p. 15. 8 Dorfman pp. 187-188 for Resnick; p. 276 for Passlof. 9 Chicago, op. cit., p. 5 10 Quoted in Linda L. Cathcart, Milton Resnick Paintings 1945–1985, exhibition catalogue (Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1985), p. 83. 11 ibid., p. 79. 12 James Schuyler, Selected Art Writings, Simon Pettet, ed. (Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1998), p. 184. 13 Dorfman, op. cit., p. 71. 14 Chicago, p. 11. 15 Dorfman, op. cit., p. 142. 16 Chicago, p. 13. 17 ibid., pp. 13–14. 18 ibid., p. 10. 19 Dorfman, op. cit., p. 90; cited in Cathcart, op. cit., p. 12. 20 Pat Passlof in Milton Resnick 1917–2004 (New York, 2005) [memorial booklet], p. 5.
Fig. 18 Milton Resnick, U & Me, 1990, oil on canvas, 84 ½ inches x 104 ½ inches
Fig. 19 Milton Resnick, Untitled, 1991, gouache on paper, 12 x 9 inches
Acknowledgements The Foundation is grateful to the following lenders and their staff, who have made this exhibition possible: Robert A. Ellison and Rosaire Appel Richard Cherry Susan Feiner The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Ian Alteveer and Rebecca Tilghman The Smithsonian American Art Museum,Washington D.C.: Virginia Mecklenburg, Rachel Allen, James Concha, Melissa L. Kroning and Paula Binari The National Gallery of Art,Washington, D.C.: Harry Cooper, Judy Cline and Lisa MacDougall Private Collection, Courtesy Manny Silverman Gallery, Beverly Hills, and Cheim & Read, New York With thanks to John Cheim, Howard Read, Mary Gail Doerhoefer, Adam Sheffer and the staff at Cheim & Read, especially Ellen Robinson, Karen Polack, Maria Bueno, Stephen Truax and Shawn Upton
Special thanks to Jane M. Timken, Elizabeth Harris Pesce, Dede Reed and the Thendara Foundation, Thomas Whitridge, Sandy Brooke and Henry Sayre, Midge Wattles Photography of artworks by Brian Buckley nnn This catalogue and exhibition would not be possible without the participation of Milton Resnick’s biographer and Foundation trustee, Geoffrey Dorfman, who has unstintingly shared his extensive research, writing and insights on the artist. Dorfman’s invaluable book Out of the Picture: Milton Resnick and the New York School was published in 2003, and a full biography has been completed and awaits publication. I also thank him for reading this essay and offering advice and corrections. Any remaining errors are my own. Portions of the essay were previously published as “A Question of Seeing,” Cheim & Read, 2008. NK
1. Nat 1936 oil on canvas 15 x 11 in 38.1 x 27.9 cm Except where noted, works are in the Collection of the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation Works marked with an asterisk are not included in the exhibition
2. Portrait 1938 graphite on paper 9 x 6 in 22.8 x 15.2 cm Resnick Family Collection
3. Untitled 1945 oil, graphite, crayon and charcoal on cardboard, mounted on Masonite 15 x 20 in 38.1 x 50.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2006
4. Untitled 1946 oil on board 19 ¼ x 29 ½ in 48.9 x 74.9 cm
5. Untitled 1946 oil and charcoal on board 17 x 16 in 43.2 x 40.6 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
6. Untitled 1948 oil and charcoal on paper 13 x 16 in 33 x 40.6 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
7. Untitled 1949 oil on wood 29 x 35 in 73.7 x 88.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Charles Abrams, 1980
8. Self-Portrait 1949 graphite on paper 13 x 11 in 33 x 27.9 cm Collection Richard Cherry
9. Untitled 1954 oil on canvas 36 x 36 in 91.4 x 91.4 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
10. Untitled 1955 oil on canvas 14 ¾ x 17 ¾ in 37.5 x 45.1 cm Resnick Family Collection
11. Freehold 1957 oil on canvas 62 x 60 in 157.5 x 152.4 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
12. Untitled 1957 oil on canvas 58 x 63 in 147.3 x 160 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
13. Music Lesson 1958 oil on canvas 67 x 68 in 170.2 x 172.7 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
14. Runaway 1958 oil on canvas 59 x 59 in 149.9 x 149.9 cm
15. Sweet Potato 1958 oil on canvas 68 x 70 in 172.7 x 177.8 cm
16. AS 4B 1959 oil on canvas 82 x 80 in 208.3 x 203.2 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
17. Boston 1959 oil on canvas 50 x 40 in 127 x 101.6 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
18. Whelan 1959 oil on canvas 70 x 50 in 177.8 x 127 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
19. All Day Long (Curtain) 1960 oil on canvas 119 x 192 in 302.3 x 487.7 cm* Private collection
20. Letter 1960 oil on canvas 98 x 43 in 248.9 x 109.2 cm
21. Untitled 1960 oil on paper 53 x 31 in 134.6 x 78.7 cm Resnick Family Collection
22. Untitled 1960 oil on paper 53 x 31 in 134.6 x 78.7 cm Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York and Manny Silverman Gallery, Beverly Hills
23. Swan 1961 oil on canvas 116 ¾ x 273 ⅝ in 296.5 x 695 cm* Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum Purchase, The Benjamin J. Tillar Memorial Trust
24. Mound 1961 oil on canvas 115 x 185 in 292.1 x 469.9 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Wise, 1974
25. New Bride 1963 oil on canvas 109 ⅛ x 210 ½ in 277.2 x 534.7 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the Vincent Melzac Collection
26. Untitled 1965 oil on canvas 35 x 23 ¼ in 88.9 x 59.1 cm
27. Edna 1973 oil on canvas 84 x 42 in 213.4 x 106.7 cm Robert A. Ellison Collection
28. Edna V 1973 oil on canvas 83 ½ x 48 ⅞ in 212.1 x 124.1 cm Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York
29. Inverness 1975 oil on canvas 40 x 36 in 101.6 x 91.4 cm
30. Weather X 1975 oil on canvas 80 x 98 in 203.2 x 248.9 cm
31. Winter X 1975 90 x 80 in 228.6 x 203.2 cm Gift of Jane M. Timken
32. Earth 1976 102 x 109 in 259.1 x 276.9 cm* The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Given Anonymously
33. Saturn 1976 oil on canvas 97 x 117 in 246.4 x 297.2 cm* National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Purchased 1978
34. Night 1977 93 x 104 in 236.2 x 264.2 cm* Private collection
35. Elephant 1979 oil on canvas 109 x 210 in 276.9 x 533.4 cm
36. Straws 1982 oil on canvas 80 x 60 in 175.3 x 203.2 cm
37. Untitled 1982 oil on canvas 80 x 60 in 203.2 x 152.4 cm
38. Elephant 1983 80 x 60 in 203.2 x 152.4 cm Gift of Elizabeth Harris Pesce
39. Untitled 1983 oil on canvas 60 x 80 in 152.4 x 203.2 cm
40. Veil of Isis 1985 oil on canvas 75 x 124 in 190.5 x 315 cm
41. Terrene 1986 oil on canvas 75 x 45 in 190.5 x 114.3 cm
42. Air 1986 oil on canvas 72 x 50 in 182.9 x 127 cm Private collection
43. Untitled 1987 oil on canvas 72 x 50 in 182.9 x 127 cm
MILTON RESNICK: A CHRONOLOGY 1917 January 8: Rachmiel Resnick born in Bratslav, Ukraine (then part of Russia) to Michael and Malca Resnick. Michael is a builder and businessman; the family Jewish. February: February Revolution overthrows the rule of the Tsars. October: October Revolution brings Bolsheviks to power, leading to years of civil war. 1921 Resnick’s father forced into hiding to avoid marauding troops. 1922–23 Resnick’s family, including a sister, Ethel, born in 1920, emigrates from Russia to America. En route the family stops in Cuba, where a second sister, Zelda, is born. On arrival in NY, the family settles in Brooklyn. Rachmiel enrolls in elementary school knowing no English. The teacher anglicizes his name to Milton. 1929–1932 Resnick studies drawing, drafting and lettering at Hebrew Technical Institute, with the idea of becoming an architect or draftsman, until the Depression puts an end to most construction.
a fine artist, kicks him out of the house. He gets a job as an elevator boy at the American Artists School in exchange for studio space in a basement storeroom. c. 1935 Meets Elaine Fried, later Elaine de Kooning, and they begin a romance. They move into a loft on Fourth Avenue and 29th Street. 1938 Meets Willem de Kooning who becomes a close friend and influence. Elaine Fried leaves Resnick for de Kooning. Works in the easel painting division of the WPA Federal Arts Project. 1940 Resnick drafted into U.S. Army. Serves throughout WWII. 1945 Returns to New York. All pre-war work lost except two paintings left with de Kooning. Reconnects with painters meeting regularly at the Waldorf Cafeteria, including de Kooning, Landes Lewitin, Aristodemos Kaldis, Franz Kline and Jack Tworkov. These meetings later devolve into the Artists’ Club. Begins to paint abstractly.
1932 Enrolls in commercial art classes at Pratt Institute night school, Brooklyn. 1933 Transfers to American Artists School, Manhattan, to study fine art. Ad Reinhardt is a classmate. Resnick’s father, disapproving of Milton’s decision to become
87 Eldridge Street studio, New York, 2013. Photo © Midge Wattles
1946 Collaborates with de Kooning to paint Labyrinth, a 17 x 24 foot backdrop for a dance performance, enlarged from de Kooning’s sketch. Resnick moves to Paris and takes a studio on the rue de Seine. Meets artists Wols, Giacometti, Brancusi, Hélion, poet Tristan Tzara.
1948 Returns to NewYork (leaving Paris paintings behind). Rents studio on East 8th Street near Jackson Pollock, de Kooning, Kline. April 12: De Kooning’s first solo exhibition opens at Charles Egan Gallery. (He is 44.) Resnick is scheduled to show there the following year but cancels due to a dispute. Summer: De Kooning teaches painting at Black Mountain College where a young painter, Pat Passlof, is his student. On their return to NewYork in the fall, de Kooning introduces Passlof to Resnick, calling him the man he “respects more than any other.” Resnick and Passlof become friends, and a few years later begin an enduring romantic relationship. Passlof, born in Georgia in 1928, would find her own career as a painter both overshadowed and bolstered by her relationship with Resnick. 1949 Artists’ Club formally established, outgrowth of Waldorf Cafeteria meetings. Resnick a founding member.
November 22–December 17: First solo gallery exhibition in New York, at Poindexter Gallery. Further solo exhibitions there in 1957, 1959. 1956 On return from California, takes studio on East 10th Street. 1957 December: Feature article by Lawrence Campbell in ARTnews, “Resnick Paints a Picture.” 1959 Rents 5000-square-foot loft at 811 Broadway, where over the next three years he paints extremely large works, up to 24 feet long, including Swan, Mound, Here I Remember. The Museum of Modern Art, NY, acquires Burning Bush, 1959. 1960 Howard Wise opens his New York gallery on 57th Street with exhibition of Resnick’s large paintings. Further solo shows at Howard Wise Gallery in 1961, 1964.
1951 May 21–June 10.The famous “9th Street Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture” is held at 60 East 9th Street, Resnick a co-organizer and participant.
Whitney Museum of American Art acquires Low Gate, 1957, and Genie, 1959.
1955 July: Resnick is Visiting Associate Professor of painting at University of California, Berkeley (through June, 1956).
1961 Resnick and Pat Passlof marry and move to Paris, but Resnick, suffering from an emotional crisis, is unable to paint there or in Amsterdam where they then go. Instead, he writes and publishes two books of poems, Up and Down and Journal of Voyages.
September 16–October 16: First solo museum exhibition, “Oil Painting by Milton Resnick” at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco.
Fall: Resnick and Passlof return to NewYork. Resnick takes a studio in lower Manhattan isolated from
other artists and begins obsessively adding paint to an 18-foot-wide canvas which will become New Bride (Collection the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.). By the time he completes it in 1963 it has become all white. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., acquires Mound, 1961. 1963 Resnick and Passlof buy and renovate a former synagogue at 80 Forsyth Street.
1975 Moves back to New York City. Resnick and Passlof reconcile, although they maintain separate residences. 1976 Resnick purchases and renovates (another) former synagogue at 87 Eldridge Street, around corner from Passlof, where he lives and works to the end of his life. 1979 First solo exhibition at Robert Miller Gallery, NY. Further shows there in 1985, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2006.
Cleveland Museum of Art acquires Metallic, 1963. 1967 Solo museum exhibition at Madison Art Center, University of Wisconsin, “Milton Resnick Paintings.”
1980 National Museum of American Art (now Smithsonian American Art Museum) acquires New Bride, 1963.
1968 Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, acquires East Is the Place, 1959.
1985 June 21–August 11: Museum retrospective, “Milton Resnick: Paintings 1945–1985” with catalogue at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
1970 Fall–May, 1971: Artist-in-Residence, Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico. Solo exhibition there.
1989 Resnick abandons “imageless” abstraction in his oil paintings and begins to include figures and other imagery.
1971 Solo museum exhibition with catalogue at Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Texas: “Milton Resnick: Selected Large Paintings.” Travels to the Milwaukee Art Museum.
2000 Debilitating arthritis prevents Resnick from standing to paint on canvas. He moves his studio to a small closet off his bedroom where he continues to work on paper.
Resnick and Passlof separate. Resnick buys house upstate in Rifton, NY, and lives there for several years.
2002 Out of the Picture, monograph on Resnick’s life and work by Geoffrey Dorfman, is published by Midmarch Arts Press.
1972 First solo exhibition at Max Hutchinson Gallery, NY. Further shows there in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982.
2004 March 12: Milton Resnick, painfully ill and discouraged at being unable to work, dies by his own hand at home in New York City. 2008 First solo show at Cheim & Read, NY, “A Question of Seeing.” Further shows in 2011, “The Elephant in the Room,” and in 2018, “The Boards.” 2011 November 3: Pat Passlof dies of cancer. Her will stipulates that her own and Resnick’s paintings and assets be used to establish the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation. 2014 Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ, mounts a major Resnick survey exhibition in conjunction with the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation. The Foundation makes plans to renovate Resnick’s Eldridge Street studio as an exhibition space to show paintings by Resnick, Passlof and other painters. Ryall Porter Sheridan Architects (now Ryall Sheridan) hired to design the renovation. Opening is projected for February 2018. Other Foundation goals include supporting the study and publication of Resnick’s and Passlof’s works and housing their archives. 2018 February: The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation opens its renovated exhibition space at 87 Eldridge Street with a retrospective exhibition: “Milton Resnick: Paintings 1937–1987.” Concurrent exhibitions held at Cheim & Read and Miguel Abreu Gallery. Future planned exhibitions at the Foundation include a group painting show organized by Robert Storr and a Pat Passlof Retrospective.
Milton Resnick’s studio at 87 Eldridge Street, New York, 2013. Photo © Midge Wattles
MILTON RESNICK 1917 Born Bratslav, Ukraine, January 8 2004 Died New York, NY March 12
2002 Milton Resnick: Five Years, 1959–1963, Robert Miller Gallery, New York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2018 Milton Resnick: Paintings 1937–1987, The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, New York Milton Resnick: Boards, Cheim & Read, New York Milton Resnick: Paintings on Paper, Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York 2014 Milton Resnick (1917–2004): Paintings and Works on Paper from the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey Milton Resnick: Allegory and Insignia, Mana Contemporary Chicago 2012 Milton Resnick: Paintings 1973–1983, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco 2011 Milton Resnick:The Elephant in the Room, Cheim & Read, New York 2008 Milton Resnick: A Question of Seeing, Paintings 1958–1963, Cheim & Read, New York 2006 Milton Resnick:The Life of Paint, The Anthony Giordano Gallery, Dowling College, Oakdale, New York Black & Blue, Robert Miller Gallery, New York 2005 Milton Resnick: LateWorks, curated by Mor Pipman, New York Studio School, New York
Milton Resnick, c. 1966
2001 Milton Resnick: X Space, Robert Miller Gallery, New York 2000 Nielsen Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts 1997 Milton Resnick Monuments, Robert Miller Gallery, New York 1996 Recent Paintings, Robert Miller Gallery, NewYork 1995 Recent Paintings, Robert Miller Gallery, NewYork 1992 Robert Miller Gallery, New York The Substance of Painting, Part I: Milton Resnick, New Paintings on Paper & Panel, D. P. Fong and Spratt Galleries, San Jose, California 1991 Milton Resnick: Straws 1981–1982, Robert Miller Gallery, New York 1988 Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles Robert Miller Gallery, New York 1987 Galerie Montenay-Delsol, Paris Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Texas Compass Rose Gallery, Chicago
1986 Arbeiten auf Papier, Galerie Biedermann, Munich Robert Miller Gallery, New York Gallery Urban, Nagoya, Japan 1985 Robert Miller Gallery, New York Milton Resnick: Paintings 1945–1985, organized by Linda L. Cathcart, Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas; traveled to University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, California Hand in Hand Galleries, New York Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Texas 1983 Milton Resnick, Gruenebaum Gallery, New York Milton Resnick, Main Gallery, Art Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, California 1982 A New Decade, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York 1980 Milton Resnick:Works on Paper & Portraits, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York
1972 Milton Resnick, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York 1971 Milton Resnick, Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico Milton Resnick: Selected Large Paintings, Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Fort Worth, Texas Milton Resnick: Selected Large Paintings, Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1969 Milton Resnick, Arden Anderson Gallery, Edgartown, Massachusetts 1968 Milton Resnick, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 1967 Milton Resnick: Paintings, Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin 1964 Recent Paintings by Milton Resnick, Howard Wise Gallery, New York Milton Resnick: Paintings, Feiner Gallery, New York
1979 Milton Resnick:The Elephant Series, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York Robert Miller Gallery, New York
1963 Milton Resnick: Paintings, Zabriskie Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts
1977 Milton Resnick, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York
1962 Milton Resnick: Paintings, Feiner Gallery, New York
1975 Milton Resnick, Poindexter Gallery, New York
1961 Milton Resnick: Paintings, Howard Wise Gallery, NewYork
1973 Milton Resnick, Kent State University Art Galleries, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
1960 Milton Resnick: Paintings, Howard Wise Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio Milton Resnick: Paintings, Howard Wise Gallery, New York
ARTnews, December, 1957
1959 Resnick: Exhibition of Paintings, Ellison Gallery, Fort Worth, Texas Milton Resnick: Paintings, Holland-Goldowsky Gallery, Chicago Milton Resnick: Paintings, Poindexter Gallery, New York Milton Resnick: Paintings, American Association of University Women of Rochester, New York
Archive, University of California, Berkeley, California Mana Monumental, curated by Eugene Lemay, Mana Miami, Miami, Florida
1957 Milton Resnick: Paintings, Poindexter Gallery, New York
2012 The Lure of Paris, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York The Poindexter Collection: Selections from the Montana Historical Society, Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana
1955 Milton Resnick: Paintings, Poindexter Gallery, New York Milton Resnick: Paintings, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum & California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2017 2017 Alumni Association Exhibition, New York Studio School, New York Paint Life I Move, les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France The Coffins of Paa Joe and the Pursuit of Happiness, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York 2016 It’s NotYour Nature, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York Abstract Expressionism, Royal Academy of Arts, London; traveled to Guggenheim Museum, Bilbão, Spain 2015 Abstraction: Al Held, Paul Jenkins, Lee Krasner,Yayoi Kusama, Milton Resnick, Robert Miller Gallery, New York Edith Schloss: Still Life, Myths, and Mountains, curated by Jason Andrew, Art Students League of New York 2014 Color Shift, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film
2013 Abstract Expressionism in Context: Seymour Lipton, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York
2011 The New York School: Selections from the Gollay Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida After Paradise, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York Abstract Expressionism: Reloading the Canon, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York Summer Selections: A Rotating Exhibition of ‘The Usual Suspects,’ Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles 2010 From a Collection of AbstractWorks on Paper 1941–1961, Cheim & Read, New York Decameron, New York Studio School, New York Le Tableau: French Abstraction and its Affinities, curated by Joe Fyfe, Cheim & Read, New York Monet and Abstraction, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Fundación Caja Madrid Out of the Back Room: Norman Bluhm, James Brooks, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, Milton Resnick, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles Eye & Mind: A Legacy of Art Collecting atVanderbilt University, curated by Joseph S. Mella, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee Public Spaces Changes 2010, Museum of Modern Art, New York
2009 Abstractions by Gallery Artists, Cheim & Read, New York Club Without Walls, Butler’s Fine Art, East Hampton, New York Milton Resnick: Selections for the Estate, Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence (Part One: Painting), Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York
2004 Ground—Field—Surface, Robert Miller Gallery, NewYork Recent Selections, Russell Bowman Fine Art, Chicago
2008 Fall Selections, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles Pretty Ugly, Maccarone Gallery, New York Signification (Significant) Form:The Persistence of Abstraction, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow New American Abstraction: 1950–1970, Gary Snyder/ Project Space, New York
2001 The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts; traveled to Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois Monet un die Moderne (Monet and Modernism), Kunsthalle, Munich; traveled to Fondation Beyeler, Basel/Riehen, Switzerland A Winter Group of Artist Couples, Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York 176th Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York
2007 Abstract Expressionist Prints, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Significant Form:The Persistence of Abstraction, Maly Manege State Exhibition Hall, Moscow 2006 1950 to Now:Works from the Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida Soutine and Modern Art:The New Landscape,The New Still Life, curated by Maurice Tuchman and Esti Dunow, Cheim & Read, New York 2005 The Subjective Figure, Robert Miller Gallery, New York The Continuous Mark: 40Years of the NewYork Studio School, Part 2 (1971–1978), New York Studio School, New York Gallery Selections, Russell Bowman Fine Art, Chicago
2003 A Bend in the Road: Paintings andWorks on Paper by Jake Berthot, Philip Guston, Pat Passlof, Milton Resnick, and Myron Stout, Maier Museum of Art, Lynchburg, Virginia
2000 Excavating Abstract Expressionism, Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Spain Nature: Contemporary Art and the Natural World, Contemporary Gallery, Marywood University, Scranton, Pennsylvania Painting Abstraction, New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, New York NewWork: Brenda Goodman, Duncan Martin, Milton Resnick, Joan Snyder, JohnWalker, Nielsen Gallery, Boston 1999 Art in America: 2000, Art in Embassies Program, Ambassadorial Residence to the Slovak Republic, Washington, D.C. The American Century: Art & Culture 1950–2000, Whitney
Museum of American Art, New York Painters/Painters, Frederick Spratt Gallery, in association with Larry Evans/James Willis Gallery, San Francisco; traveled to Frederick Spratt Gallery, San Jose, California Material Abstraction, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York Art Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; coordinated exhibition with Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York 1997 The Figure Revisited, The Gallery at Hastings-onHudson, New York After the Fall: Aspects of Abstract Painting Since 1970, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York 1996 Abstract Expressionism in the United States, Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City Summer Group Show, Robert Miller Gallery, New York 1995 The Small Painting, Jonathan O’Hara Gallery, New York A Romantic Impulse, Seventeen American Artists, Jonathan O’Hara Gallery, New York 1995 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 10 + 10, New York Studio School, New York Action and Edge: 1950s and 1960s, Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York 1994 Paths of Abstraction: Painting in NewYork 1944–1981, Selections from the Ciba Art Collection, Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery, Hunter College, New York AbstractWorks on Paper, Robert Miller Gallery, New York With a Passage of Time, Vanderwoude Tananbaum Gallery, New York Reclaiming Artists of the NewYork School:Toward a More InclusiveView of the 1950s, Sidney Mishkin Gallery,
Newsweek, March 7, 1960
Baruch College, City University of New York Isn’t it Romantic?, curated by Michael Walls, On Crosby Street, New York The Shaman as Artist/The Artist as Shaman, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado 1993 Star Zone, Bondie’s Contemporary Art, New York Timely & Timeless, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut The Inaugural Show, The Painting Gallery, New York Windows and Doors, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York The Usual Suspects, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles Exhibition ofWork by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Abstract—Figurative, Robert Miller Gallery, New York Awards, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York 1992 ImportantWorks on Paper, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas Summer Group Exhibition, Ginny Williams Gallery, Denver, Colorado Painters, Trenkmann Gallery, New York Paint, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York Paths to Discovery—The NewYork School:Works on Paper from the 1950s and 1960s, curated by Ellen Russotto, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, City University of New York, New York Al Held/Milton Resnick, 1955–1965, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles 1991 Painting, Galerie Lelong, New York The NewYork School:Works on Paper from the Fifties & Sixties, Elston Fine Arts, New York Contemporary Abstract Paintings: Resnick, Reed, Laufer & Moore, Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
1990 Line & Action, Tavelli Gallery, Aspen, Colorado Group Exhibition, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles Changing Perceptions:The Evolutions of Twentieth Century American Art, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina 42nd Annual Academy-Institute Purchase Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, NewYork Some SeventiesWorks, Robert Miller Gallery, New York The Figure in the 20th Century, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas Works by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Awards, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York Academy-Institute Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York The Image of Abstract Paintings in the 1980s, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 1989 Abstract Expressionism: Paintings, Drawings, andWatercolors, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles Envoys, New York Studio School, New York 41st Annual Purchase Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York The Gestural Impulse 1945–1960, Whitney Museum of American Art (Federal Reserve Plaza), New York Exhibition of Masterworks, Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona A Decade of American Drawing 1980–1989, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles Selections from the Collection of Marc and Livia Strauss, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut Abstraction as Landscape, Gallery Urban, New York 1988 Recent Painterly Paintings, Schreiber/Cutler, Inc., NewYork AbstractWork from the 1950s, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles
1987 Works on Paper, Beijing Art Institute, Beijing; traveled to Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; Alisan Gallery, Hong Kong); Newhouse Center For Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York; Nielsen Gallery, Boston The Presence of Nature: Some American Paintings, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston After Pollock:Three Decades of Diversity, Iannetti Lanzone Gallery, San Francisco Black, Siegeltuch Gallery, New York American Still Life, 1980–87, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas Post Abstract Expressionism, Vanderwonde Tananbaum Gallery, New York Modern: Contemporary Masters, Lever/Meyerson Galleries, New York InnerWorlds, Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery, Bronxville, New York
1984 Group Show, Hand in Hand Galleries, New York Salvo, Siegel Contemporary Art, New York Summer Group Show, Robert Miller Gallery, New York 1 + 1 = 2, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York Summer Group Show, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York Group Show, Art Galaxy, New York Beauties & Beasts, Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York
1986 Portraits, New York Studio School, New York The 1950s American Artists in Paris, Part III, Denise Cade Gallery, New York Monotypes, Oscarsson Siegeltuch, New York Summer Group Show, Robert Miller Gallery, New York Absolutes Defined: Line, Light and Surface, Oscarsson Siegeltuch, New York Portraits and Self-Portraits, Sorkin Gallery, New York Heads, Mokotoff Gallery, New York Naked Paint, Newhouse Gallery, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York 1985 Jo Baer, Heidi Gluck, Bill Jensen, Alfred Leslie, Milton Resnick, Art Galaxy, New York The Gathering of the Avant Garde:The Lower East Side, 1950–70, Kenkelba House, Inc., New York Group Show, Art Galaxy, New York Masters of the Fifties American Abstract Painting from Pollock to Stella, Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York
1982 Four Painters, Art Galaxy, New York Synergy/Artists 1+1=3, Thorpe Intermedia Gallery, Sparkhill, New York Tenth Anniversary Exhibition of Major Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Gruenebaum Gallery, New York 1981 1981 Painting Invitational, Oscarsson-Hood Gallery, New York Art forYour Collection, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island Abstract Expressionism From the Michener Collection, Abilene Fine Arts Museum, Abilene, Texas For Love and Money: Dealers Choose I, Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York; traveled to Hartwick College Museums, Oneonta, New York CIBA-GEIGY Collects: Aspects of Abstraction, Sewall Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston, Texas An American Choice:The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1983 NewYork to Bennington, Bennington College, New York Paintings of the 1970s, Queens College, New York Summer Group Show, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York Purism, Segal Gallery, New York Vintage NewYork, Contemporary Art at One Penn Plaza, One Penn Plaza, New York Paint as Image, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York
1980 Luminosity in Paint, Landmark Gallery, New York 1979 In the Realm of the Monochromatic, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago 1978 American Painting of the 1970s, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (traveled) RecentWorks on Paper by Contemporary American Artists, Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin In the Realm of the Monochromatic: 17 Painters, Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York 1977 Critic’s Choice: A Loan Exhibition from the NewYork Gallery Season, 1976–77, Joe & Emily Lowe Art Gallery, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York NewYork – The State of the Art, New York State Museum, Albany, New York 1976 Works on Paper from the CIBA-GEIGY Collection, Wichita Falls Museum and Art Center, Wichita Falls, Kansas Around 10th Street: Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, Young-Hoffman Gallery, Chicago From Foreign Born American Masters, Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Abstract Expressionists and Imagists: A RetrospectiveView and Exhibition of Paintings from the Michener Collection, Archer M. Huntington Gallery, University of Texas at Austin, Texas 1974 Works on Paper from CIBA-GEIGY Collection, Summit Art Center, Summit, New Jersey The 1960s: Color Painting in the United States from the Michener Collection, Blanton Museum of Art, University
Artforum, April, 1978
of Texas at Austin, Texas Frank O’Hara, A Poet Among Painters, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Five American Painter’s RecentWork: De Kooning, Mitchell, Motherwell, Resnick, Tworkov, Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara, California Color Renaissance: Sculpture and Painting in the Sixties, Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1973 Group Show, Gallery A, Sydney, Australia Works on Paper, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York Group Show, Landmark Gallery, New York American Art at Mid-Century I, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Abstract Expressionism:The First and Second Generations, Selected from Paintings in the Michener Collection, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Texas Visual R&D: A Corporation Collects:The CIBA-GEIGY Collection of Contemporary Paintings, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Texas
Selections from the NewYork University Collection, William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 1973 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 1972 The Michener Collection: American Paintings of the 20th Century Inaugural Exhibition in the Michener Galleries, University of Texas at Austin, Texas Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York 1971 A New Consciousness:The CIBA-GEIGY Collection, Hudson River Museum,Yonkers, New York American Paintings of the Sixties from the Michener Collection, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas 20th Century Painting and Sculpture from the NewYork University Art Collection, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York American Social Realism Between theWars from the Michener Collection, University of Texas Art Galleries, Austin, Texas 1970 Selections from theVincent Melzac Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 1969 The New American Painting and Sculpture:The First Generation, Museum of Modern Art, New York Group Show, Bundy Gallery, Waitsfield, Vermont 1968 American Paintings:The 1950s, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia; traveled to Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas; Charles and Emma Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; Roberson Memorial Center for the Arts & Sciences, Binghamton, New York; University of Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Huntington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio; Edmonton Art Gallery American Abstract Expressionists from the Michener Foundation Collection, Millersville State College, Pennsylvania The Neuberger Collection: An American Collection of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture I; traveled to National Gallery of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island and Annmary Brown Memorial, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island Painting as Painting, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Texas 1967 1967 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Contemporary Paintings from the Michener Foundation Collection, Old Dominion College, Norfolk, Virginia Selections from the Michener Foundation Collection, Perkiomen School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Large Scale American Paintings, Jewish Museum, New York 1966 Twentieth Century American Painters from the Michener Foundation Collection, Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania New Acquisitions 1963–66, James A. Michener Foundation Collection, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania One Hundred and Sixty First Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1965 Personal Choice: Paintings and Sculpture from Houston Private Collections, organized by Wilson Burdett, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
Expressionism of the Fifties, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri 79 PaintersWho Paint, Poindexter Gallery; Graham Gallery; Martha Jackson Gallery; Kornblee Gallery; Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York (simultaneous exhibitions) 1964 Dealer’s Choice: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas Group Show, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona New Accessions, U.S.A., Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado Recent American Paintings, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Texas 1963 Annual Exhibition 1963, Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York American Impressionists:Two Generations, Fort Lauderdale Art Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Directions – American Paintings, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco 1962 Nine Artists Through Three Decades, Howard Wise Gallery, New York The Closing Show, Tanager Gallery, New York Art: USA Now – The Johnson Collection of Contemporary American Paintings, Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Contemporary Art in Cleveland Collections, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio Art Since 1950: America and International, Seattle World’s Fair, Seattle, Washington Tenth Street, 1952, Tanager Gallery, New York One Hundred and Fifty Seventh Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
65th American Exhibition: Some Directions in Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago 1961 Pan–American Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, United States Information Agency (traveling exhibition) AmericanVanguard Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, United States Information Agency (traveling exhibition) Group Show, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Missouri Annual Exhibition 1961: Contemporary Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Contemporary Paintings Selected from 1960–1961 NewYork Gallery Exhibitions,Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut American Abstract Expressionists and Imagists, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York The Face of the Fifties, Recent Painting and Sculpture from the Collection of theWhitney Museum of Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1960 Group Show, Tanager Gallery, New York An Exhibition of Modern American Painting and Sculpture, Kroeber Hall, University of California at Berkeley, California The Horace Richter Collection: Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina 60 American Painters – Abstract Expressionists Painting of the Fifties, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota Contemporary American Painting, Columbus Gallery of Fine Art, Ohio 1959 1959 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Paintings, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Milton Resnick/Edward Dugmore, Allyn Gallery, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois
Milton Resnick Paintings and Aaron Siskind Photographs, Holland-Goldowsky Gallery, Chicago Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1958 Project I, Longview Foundation Purchases in Modern American Painting and Sculpture for the Union Sanatorium Association of the International Ladies GarmentWorker’s Union, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Painting and Sculpture Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1957 The 30s: Painting in NewYork, Poindexter Gallery, NewYork 1957 Annual Exhibition: Sculpture, Paintings andWatercolor, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Group Show, March Gallery, New York Museum Purchase Fund Collection, Syracuse Museum, Syracuse, New York (traveled) U.S. Representation: Fourth International Art Exhibition, Metropolitan Art Gallery, Tokyo Group Show, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York Artists of the NewYork School: Second Generation Paintings by Twenty-Three Artists, Jewish Museum, New York Group Show, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York 1956 Group Show, Tanager Gallery, New York Mid-Season Salon, Camino Gallery, New York Fifth Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, The Stable Gallery, New York Group Show, March Gallery, New York 1955 Paintings, Sculpture, Tanager Gallery, New York Group Show, Poindexter Gallery, New York The Stable Show, The Stable Gallery, New York 1954 Third Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, The Stable Gallery, New York
1953 Group Show, Tanager Gallery, New York Second Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, The Stable Gallery, New York 1952 Paintings – Sculpture, Tanager Gallery, New York 1951 9th Street Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 60 East 9th Street, New York PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, New Mexico Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas at Austin, Texas Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, California Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta, India Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Texas Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York Carlson Gallery, University of Bridgeport College of Fine Arts, Bridgeport, Connecticut Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio College Union Collection, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York Hampton University Museum, Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque, New Mexico Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin Malmรถ Konsthall, Stockhom, Sweden Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas Museum of Modern Art, New York National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California Sheldon Museum of Art and Sculpture Garden, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Nebraska Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Tufts University Art Gallery, Somerville, Massachusetts University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts
This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Milton Resnick: Paintings 1937–1987, inaugurating the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation exhibition space at 87 Eldridge Street, New York, NY, February 24–September 30, 2018.
The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation 87 Eldridge Street New York, NY 10002
Curator Geoffrey Dorfman. Text Nathan Kernan. Design John Cheim. Editor Ellen Robinson. Printed by Graphicom. ISBN 978–1–944316–10–5. All works © the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation. Front cover: Untitled 1982 oil on canvas 80 x 60 in 203.2 x 152.4 cm. Back cover: Milton Resnick on the roof of his Tenth Street studio with Storage. Frontispiece: Paris, 1948. Photographer unknown. Opposite page: Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof, circa 1998. Photograph © Denise Keim
M I LTON R E S N IC K PA I N T I NGS 1937–1987
PA I N T I NGS 1937–1987 T H E M I LTON R E S N IC K A N D PAT PA S S LOF FOU N DAT ION
M I LTON R E S N ICK T H E M I LTON R E S N IC K A N D PAT PA S SLOF FOU N DAT ION