Edward Corbett (August 22, 1919 – June 6, 1971) was an American

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

artist.

Biography

Edward Corbett was born in Chicago, Illinois to John Leland Corbett and Laura Corbett. His father was in the army, so the family moved often. Corbett lived in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Texas, Manilla and Ohio all before he turned 14. He took his first art classes at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio when he was 11 years old. He continued to pursue the arts throughout high school. In 1937, he began taking summer courses at the

California School of Fine Arts San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximatel ...

(CSFA) and eventually enrolled full-time to learn under Lee Randolph,

Otis Oldfield Otis William Oldfield (July 3, 1890 – May 18, 1969) was a San Francisco painter, printmaker and art educator. Early life and education Otis William Oldfield was born on July 3, 1890, in Sacramento, California. He attended Sutter High School ...

and William Gaw. Corbett flourished as a student at CSFA and was awarded the Albert Bender Scholarship, Robert Howe Fletcher Award and the Anne Bremer Memorial Scholarship. After his studies, he was drafted into the army, but continued to draw when he could. Corbett was discharged in 1943 and joined the

American Abstract Artists American Abstract Artists (AAA) was formed in 1936 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major fo ...

in New York by 1946. He married Catherine Henck in 1944. Corbett returned to San Francisco and Douglas MacAgy invited him to teach at CSFA, where he worked alongside

Elmer Bischoff Elmer Nelson Bischoff (July 9, 1916 – March 2, 1991) was a visual artist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bischoff, along with Richard Diebenkorn and David Park, was part of the post- World War II generation of artists who started as abstract p ...

, Hassel Smith, David Park, Clay Spohn,

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...

and

Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediately follow ...

. During part of his teaching career at CSFA, Corbett lived in Point Richmond in a house with Robert & Mary Fuller McChesney and Hassel & June Smith. He began to paint his famous black paintings. Some notable works based on his time there are ''Point Richmond'' and ''Evening of the Eclipse''. He also taught an advanced drawing and painting course at U.C. Berkeley where

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

was among his students. Corbett got his big break when Dorothy Miller chose to exhibit his work in the 15 Americans exhibition at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

. It was for this catalog that he wrote his now infamous phrase, "I intend my work as poetry". Grace Borgenicht added Corbett to her roster of artists in 1952. Corbett continued to exhibit with Borgenicht for the rest of his career as an artist. He also continued to teach: Mount Holyoke College (1953–54),

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

(1956),

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

(1957),

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

(1960), Mount Holyoke (1962–63), American University (1966) and

UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

(1967–68). He died in

Provincetown Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. At the time of his death, he was married to the painter Rosamond Walling Tirana Corbett (1910-1999), who was the daughter of

Anna Strunsky Anna Strunsky Walling (March 21, 1877 – February 25, 1964) was known as an early 20th-century Jewish-American author and advocate of socialism based in San Francisco, California, and New York City. She was primarily a novelist, but also wrote a ...

and

William English Walling William English Walling (1877–1936) (known as "English" to friends and family) was an American labor reformer and Socialist Republican born into a wealthy family in Louisville, Kentucky. He founded the National Women's Trade Union League in 1903 ...

. His artwork can be found in both private and public collections. U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

borrowed ''Washington, D.C. November 1963 III'' from the National Gallery of Art.Charlotte Higgens, "What Barack and Michelle Obama's taste in art says about them" ''The Guardian'', October 7, 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbett, Edward 1919 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters Abstract expressionist artists Artists from Chicago 20th-century American male artists