Jack Tworkov (15 August 1900 – 4 September 1982) 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 th ...
painter.
Biography
Yakov Tworkovsky, more commonly known as Jack Tworkov, was born in Biała Podlaska on the border between Poland and the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
. Because of the growing unrest in Europe leading up to World War I, his father, who was a tailor, immigrated to the United States in the early 1910s to set up the family tailoring business in New York City. Following his father in 1913 Yakov along with his mother and younger sister travelled to New York through Ellis Island. Upon arriving to America, Yakov and his sister Schenehaia both changed their names. Yakov became Jack, and Schenehaia became Janice Biala. At the time he moved to America Jack was still attending school, so upon his arrival to New York he was immediately put into the American public school system. Jack Tworkov appeared to be uninterested in painting; he didn't attend classes or go to school for art, rather he had attended
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
to become a writer. He continued his pursuit of writing until his persistent sister convinced him to attend classes at the Art Students League of New York. The League acted as a catalyst for Jack's art career, sparking his interest in the field art. Two of his major influences early on were painters Cézanne and
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primar ...
. Their influence along with his sisters prompted him to study art at the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the ...
Yosl Cutler
Yosl Cutler ( yi, יאסל קאטלער, 1896 – June 11, 1935) was a Yiddish-American cartoonist, poet, satirist and founder of the first Yiddish puppet theatre in the United States.
Biography
Yosl Cutler, an orphaned son of a butcher, w ...
and
Zuni Maud
Zuni Maud (born Yitzhok Moyed; 1891 – 1956) was a Yiddish-American cartoonist, satirist, calligrapher and co-founder of the first Yiddish-language puppet theatre in the United States.
Early life and education
Zuni Maud (זוני מאוד) was b ...
to be set and costume designers for Maurice Schwartz's production of Abraham Goldfaden's ''Di Kishefmacherin''. They created puppets for the show and decided to launch a puppet theatre. The trio expanded their early work during a summer spent in the Catskills, at a summer home of left wing painters and writers, who offered opinions. In 1925 the trio opened the Modjacot (a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words Tworkov dropped out very soon, and the amalgam name became Modicot.
In 1929 America entered into the great depression; following the economic collapse President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Work Projects Administration. Tworkov, being an aspiring artist, sought employment as a member of the Federal Art Project division of the Work Projects Administration met, which is where he met one of the first artists responsible for bring
Abstract Expressionism
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 ...
to the attention of the American public, Willem de Kooning. This is the time in which Tworkov's art begins to take on the early signs of
Abstract Expressionism
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 ...
style. Tworkov and de Koonig met many other abstract painters, and together with a group of abstract expressionists including Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko and
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionism, abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splas ...
, founded the New York School. Many of the people involved in creating the New York School including Tworkov were also involved with the creating of the 8th Street Club, which was responsible for hosting the 9th Street Art Exhibition, which was largely regarded as the event in which the New York School style was truly exposed to the American people.
During his lifetime, Tworkov taught at several institutions, including the
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was cha ...
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. ...
,
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, and
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
where he was the chairman of the Art Department from 1963 to 1969. As chairman, Tworkov invited known artists to teach, including
Al Held
Al Held (October 12, 1928 – July 27, 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist painter. He was particularly well known for his large scale Hard-edge paintings. As an artist, multiple stylistic changes occurred throughout his career, howe ...
,
Knox Martin
Knox Martin (February 12, 1923 – May 15, 2022) was an American painter, sculptor, and muralist.
Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, he studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1946 until 1950. He was one of the leading members of the N ...
,
George Wardlaw
George Anthony Wardlaw (born 11 June 2004) is a professional Australian rules footballer who was drafted to play for North Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL) in the 2022 draft.
Early life
Wardlaw completed his secondary educati ...
, and Bernard Chaet. Among the students of that era were
Chuck Close
Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...
Nancy Graves
Nancy Graves (December 23, 1939 – October 21, 1995, in Massachusetts) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime- filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the Moon. Her works are included in ...
Brice Marden
Brice Marden (born October 15, 1938) is an American artist generally described as Minimalist, although his work may be hard to categorize. He lives and works in New York City; Tivoli, New York; Hydra (island), Hydra, Greece; and Eagles Mere, Penn ...
.
Tworkov is regarded as an important and influential artist, along with Rothko, de Kooning, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, and Pollock, whose gestural paintings of the early 1950s formed the basis for the abstract expressionist movement in America. Major work from this period is characterized by the use of gestural brush strokes in flame-like color. His work transitioned during the mid-1960s. Straight lines and geometric patterns characterize his later art work. ''Wedding Flags'' of 1965, included in the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, NY, is a transitional painting that combines both abstract expressionism and geometric abstraction.
Despite being credited as one of the founders of the New York School, Tworkov's later works of art diverged from this style of painting. After the 1950s one can see from Tworkov's art that he takes a more geometric approach to his work; this is easily identifiable by his artwork specifically Indian Red Series #2 (1979). Tworkov's experiments with geometric shapes were largely inspired by basic geometry and number systems, as well as the well known Fibonacci number sequence.
What was formerly the UBS Art Gallery in New York exhibited five decades of Tworkov's work in the 2009 show ''Against Extremes'', "a tantalizing historical survey" charting everything from his de Kooning roots to his omnipresent "dream of freedom".John Yau, Jack Tworkov: "Against Extremes: Five Decades of Painting", ''Brooklyn Rail,'' October 2009
Tworkov died in 1982 in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He was 82.
See also
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Art movement
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defin ...
*
Abstract expressionism
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 ...
Expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it ra ...
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...