Howard Warshaw: Looking In/Drawing Out

HOWARD WARSHAW LOOKING IN : DRAWING OUT

Born in 1920 in Manhattan and trained at the Pratt

This overlapping of elusory forms coalesced into

Institute, the National Academy, the Art Students League

a distinctive style of cubism that has been termed

of New York and Columbia, Howard Warshaw developed

“organic cubism.”

into a powerful American artist at an early age.

Lebrun, it found its most elegant expression in the work

If this movement originated with

of Warshaw, who was able to advance At just twenty-five years old, Warshaw

the idea for a decade longer.

exhibited at the famous Julien Levy Gallery in New York as well as the 1945

Among Warshaw’s most significant

Whitney Annual. This auspicious launch

contributions to American art was his

led to an active, lifelong exhibition

development of a unique and important

schedule with dealers Julien Levy and

language of drawing. In the lines of his

Jacques Seligmann in New York and

best drawings, one can read movement,

Felix Landau, Esther Bear, and Frank

volume, weight, the emotional tenor

Perls in California. He also exhibited at

of the artist and subject, the scientific

the National Academy, LACMA, the De

knowledge of the time, and the artist’s

Young, and the Santa Barbara Museum

philosophy. As a professor at UCSB

of Art, among many others. For a time,

from 1957 until his death in 1977,

he and artists like Rico Lebrun (1900-

Howard Warshaw helped generations

1964) and William Brice (1921-2008)

of artists to see more deeply and to

helped shape the American avant-garde from the wilds

draw more beautifully.

of Southern California.

This exhibit is composed of many pieces acquired from Howard Warshaw’s first paintings are surreal featuring

Tajan, the premier Parisian auction house, as well as

precise draftsmanship, a rare sense for shape, and a

from the Estate of the Artist; many have been widely

restricted palette. These works show the strong influence

exhibited and few have been seen in decades. Sullivan

of neo-romantic painter Eugene Berman (1899-1972).

Goss hopes to lend context to the current reassessment

His later works would explore and refine the expressive

of the mid-century’s greatest artists. Surely, Howard

lines and ambiguous forms of Rico Lebrun.

Warshaw is one of them.

- Jeremy Tessmer, Gallery Director

FOAL, 1960 39.5 x 39.5 inches acrylic, conte crayon, and charcoal on masonite

STILL LIFE, c. 1950 9 x 12 inches oil on artist’s cardstock

FIGURES, 1953 8.625 x 12 inches watercolor, ink wash, and conte crayon on paper

HORSE HEAD IN MOTION, 1950 22.125 x 16.875 inches oil on board

CAT SKULLS, 1946 | 23 x 61 inches | oil on canvas

S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S (selected list): Julien Levy, New York, NY Frank Perls Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA Pasadena Museum of Art, CA Jacques Seligmann, New York, NY Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA Esther Bear Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA UCSB Art Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Larcada Gallery, New York, NY Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

1945 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 1955 1958, 1961, 1962 1959, 1973, 1977, 1988 1962-1973 1964 1967 1974-1976 2004, 2008

G R O U P E X H I B I T I O N S (selected list): Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY Carnegie Institute’s International, Pittsburg, PA Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Los Angeles County Museum of Art M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C. Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA National Academy of Design, New York, NY Koplin Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1959 1946, 1947, 1955, 1958 1945, 1954, 1958 1948, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1956 1953, 1957 1954 1961 1964, 1966 1977 1991-1993 2004-2007

APPLES, ND | 10 x 13 inches (sheet size) | watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper

ON EXHIBIT

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