Tania (1920, Warsaw, Poland, Tatiana Lewin – 1982, Brooklyn, New York) was a Polish-born, New York based, Jewish American abstract painter, sculptor, collage artist and painter of city walls. She was known by several different married names over the course of her career (including Tania Pollak, Tania Milicevic, Tania Schreiber, Tania Schreiber-Milicevic, Tania Milicevic-Mills, and Tania Mills), but decided as of 1958 to use simply her first name, Tania. She was active in the New York art world from 1949 to 1982, but is perhaps best known for her 13-story geometric wall painting of 1970, which still stands at the corner of Mercer St. & 3rd St. in Greenwich Village, New York. In 1966, she became a founding member of City Walls, Inc., a non-profit organization that commissioned abstract artists to paint walls around New York City, and which (when consolidated with the Public Arts Council in 1977) would later become the

Public Art Fund Public Art Fund is an independent, non-profit arts organization founded in 1977 by Doris Freedman, Doris C. Freedman. The organization presents contemporary art in New York City's public spaces through a series of highly visible artists' projects, n ...

Early life and education

Tania was born in 1920 in Warsaw, Poland, to Mischa (Michael) and Rosalia (Rose) Lewin. Around 1931, the family emigrated to Paris, where Tania spent the rest of her childhood. The family fled to Montréal, Canada in 1941 following Germany's invasion of France. There, Tania received a Master of Arts from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

before relocating to New York City with her parents in 1943. She began a PhD in French Literature at

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 ...

, but left the program with ABD status. In 1949, she began courses at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

, where she studied painting with

Yasuo Kuniyoshi was a Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker. Biography Kuniyoshi was born on September 1, 1889 in Okayama, Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1906, choosing not to attend military school in Japan. Kuniyoshi original ...

, Morris Kantor and Vaclav Vytlacil.

Career

Over the course of her career, Tania worked in a number of styles before settling on her characteristic geometric abstract style featuring hard-edged triangles. Her early paintings from the late 1940s evidence the influence of her teacher Yasuo Kuniyoshi, both in terms of their subject matter and color palette. In her student years, she exhibited in juried student exhibitions at the Art Students' League. In 1951, she was included in a group show of newcomers at the Creative Gallery. From 1954 to 1958, she made a living designing wallpaper, fabrics and carpets while raising her young children. Tania had her first "one-man show" at Albert Landry Gallery in 1959. She asked

Ad Reinhardt Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 – August 30, 1967) was an abstract painter active in New York for more than three decades. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and part of the movement center ...

to help her hang the show. Through the early 1960s, she worked primarily in collage and assemblage. This phase featured abstract collages of corrugated cardboard and paint as well as more heavily Pop-influenced collages and wood assemblages featuring signage, advertising and other found materials. She exhibited several of these colorful wood sculptures in her 1963 solo show at

Bertha Schaefer Gallery Bertha Schaefer (1895–1971) was an American designer and gallery director, she was known for her furniture designs, and as an interior designer. Biography Schaefer was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1895. Her father Emil Schaefer was a ref ...

under the name "Color Structures." During this time, Tania also exhibited what she called her "complementary paintings," works comprising two abutted canvases. These "complementary" (or "binary" works) typically combined collaged canvases with monochrome ones. In a related set of works on paper, she mounted collages opposite her own poetry in French. Her 1961 show at Landry Gallery included complementary paintings and corrugated board collages, but also several large-scale "environments." In 1962, sponsored by Ad Reinhardt,

Philip Pearlstein Philip Martin Pearlstein (May 24, 1924 – December 17, 2022) was an American painter best known for Modernist Realist nudes. Cited by critics as the preeminent figure painter of the 1960s to 2000s, he led a revival in realist art. Biography ...

and Pandolfini, she was elected as a member of The Artists' Club. She began teaching at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 1963. Two drawings housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art show that Tania had arrived at her geometric style at least by 1967. She produced paintings and prints featuring variations on her characteristic "overlapping triangles" composition. In this period, she also produced large-scale aluminum sculptures that translated the overlapping triangles composition into multi-planar, three-dimensional form. Examples of this type of sculpture can be seen in the Kingsborough Community College Marine & Academic Center building in Brooklyn and on the library at Albright College in Reading, PA. In a statement from 1978, Tania likened her triangles to rooftops, seen from above: "For a few years now I have been thinking of my paintings (always executed on the floor) as roof tops seen from the air – in the clouds – in the sun – in the night. The paintings have become sketches for buildings planned from the top down...The

Spiral Jetty ''Spiral Jetty'' is an earthwork sculpture constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the most important work of American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also tit ...

of Smithson could be done in the City." From roughly 1966, when she co-founded City Walls Inc., Tania had begun to devote much of her energy to public and outdoor art projects. With the sponsorship of City Walls, she painted walls at Evergreen & Weirfield Aves in Brooklyn (1968), Bryant & Lafayette Aves in the Bronx (1968), and at Mercer & 3rd St. in Manhattan (1970), but only the Manhattan wall remains. In 1972, she collaborated with

Nassos Daphnis Nassos Daphnis (July 23, 1914 in Krokeai, Greece – November 23, 2010 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, U.S.) was a Greek-born American abstract painter, sculptor and tree peony breeder. Army Service: 1942–1945 Daphnis served in the United ...

to produce a temporary "environment in process" by painting various surfaces at the construction site of a high-rise in Times Square—from the building's skeleton, to the surrounding plywood scaffolding, to construction workers' shoes and toolboxes. Tania commented in her writings about the difficulty of being a woman artist who painted geometric abstractions. In one unpublished autobiographical text she writes, "My paintings were 'too large for a woman,' said the New York Times ...I painted like a man... I guess I was supposed to paint flowers."

Select exhibitions

* Creative Gallery, New York, 1951 * Albert Landry Gallery, New York, 1959 (Including: "Waters Can Be Islands, No. 3") * Albert Landry Gallery, New York, 1961 (complementary paintings, cardboard collages, and largescale environments) * Albert Landry Gallery, New York, 1962 * "Tania," Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, 1963 (Including: "Look Me Over," collage) * Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, 1963 (Featured work: "SG7," painting/collage) ::with

Milton Avery Milton Clark Avery (March 7, 1885 – January 3, 1965Haskell, B. (2003). "Avery, Milton". Grove Art Online.) was an American modern painter. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City. He was the husband ...

, James Brooks, Stuart Davis,

Jane Freilicher Jane Freilicher (November 19, 1924 – December 9, 2014) was an American representational painter of urban and country scenes from her homes in lower Manhattan and Water Mill, Long Island. She was a member of the informal New York School beginni ...

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Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...

Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...

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Hedda Sterne Hedda Sterne (August 4, 1910 – April 8, 2011) was a Romanian-born American artist who was an active member of the New York School of painters. Her work is often associated with Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism.Sterne, Hedda, Sarah L Eckh ...

, Esteban Vicente, and others * "Tania: Color Structures," Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, 1964 * Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, 1964 (Featured work: "S Begins," wood sculpture) * "Formalists" at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, 1963 (Featured work: "Exp," collage) ::with

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, ...

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Agnes Martin Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004), was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Mart ...

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in M ...

, and others. * "Using Walls" Special Exhibition at The Jewish Museum, New York, 1970 ::The Museum featured a plywood mural by Tania on its façade for the length of the exhibition * "Painting for City Walls," Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1969 * "Artists of the Hamptons Paintings & Sculpture," Auction to Benefit Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY, 1975 (Featured work: "4 Pyramids Red," painting) ::with

Perle Fine Perle Fine (born Poule Feine)(1905–1988) was an American Abstract expressionist painter.Adolph Gottlieb Adolph Gottlieb (March 14, 1903 – March 4, 1974) was an American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor and printmaker. Early life and education Adolph Gottlieb, one of the "first generation" of Abstract Expressionists, was born in New Yo ...

Howard Kanovitz Howard Kanovitz (February 9, 1929 – February 2, 2009) was a pioneering painter in the Photorealist and Hyperrealist Movements, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in response to the abstract art movement. Howard Kanovitz, whose 50-year car ...

Elaine de Kooning Elaine Marie Catherine de Kooning (, née Fried; March 12, 1918 – February 1, 1989) was an Abstract Expressionist and Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era. She wrote extensively on the art of the period and was an edito ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination betw ...

Ibram Lassaw Ibram Lassaw (May 4, 1913 – December 30, 2003) was a Russian-American sculptor, known for non-objective construction in brazed metals. Biography Lassaw was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Russian émigré parents, he went to the U.S. in 1921. H ...

, John Opper, Ray Parker, Ray Prohaska, Syd Solomon,

Saul Steinberg Saul Steinberg (June 15, 1914 – May 12, 1999) was a Romanian-American artist, best known for his work for ''The New Yorker'', most notably ''View of the World from 9th Avenue''. He described himself as "a writer who draws". Biography Ste ...

, Esteban Vicente,

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

, and others. * "Vaclav Vytlacil: Paintings and Constructions from 1930," featuring works by Vytlacil and his students, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey, 1975–76 :: with

Louise Bourgeois Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

, Tony Smith,

Cy Twombly Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. (; April 25, 1928July 5, 2011) was an American Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and photographer. He belonged to the generation of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Twombly is said to have influenced you ...

, and others. * Solo retrospective at Jack Gallery, New York, 1978

Collections

Tania's works can be found in the following public collections: * Albright College, Reading, PA * Barnard College, New York * Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY * The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York * Morgan State College, Baltimore * New York University, New York * Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA * Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY She also designed doors for a Torah ark (1966–67) that is still in use at the White Street Synagogue (or Synagogue for the Arts) in New York.

Published resources

In order of publication date: *

Dore Ashton Dore Ashton (May 21, 1928 – January 30, 2017) was a writer, professor and critic on modern and contemporary art. Biography Ashton was born in Newark, New Jersey on May 21, 1928. She was the author or editor of more than thirty books on art, in ...

, "Art: An Image Elaborated," ''New York Times'' (October 7, 1959) *

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism (a term he nonetheless stridently disavowed).Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In ...

, "Tania" (review), ''Arts Magazine'' 38, no. 6 (March 1964), 70 eprinted in Donald Judd, ''Complete Writings, 1959-1975'' (Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, 2005)* Fred W. McDarrah, ''The Artist's World in Pictures.'' New York: E.P. Dutton, 1961 *

Mel Bochner Mel Bochner (born 1940) is an American conceptual artist. Bochner received his BFA in 1962 and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in 2005 from the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in New York City. Life Bochner was born in Pittsb ...

, "Tania" (review), ''Arts Magazine'' 40, no. 5 (March 1966), 68-69 * Harold C. Schonberg, "Someone There Is Who Loves a Wall," ''New York Times'' (Sunday, May 31, 1970), Real Estate sectio
page 1page 2
* Dore Ashton et al., ''Using Walls (Outdoors)'' ''The Jewish Museum'' (May 13-June 21, 1970), Exhibition Catalogue * Dore Ashton. ''New York''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1972 *

References

External links

Tania Papers, 1952–1982, Smithsonian Archives of American ArtTania and others at Robert Rauschenberg's 1963 retrospective at the Jewish MuseumPhotos from Tania's Landry Gallery exhibition, 1963Oral history interview with Bertha Schaefer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tania 1920 births 1982 deaths American abstract artists American women painters McGill University alumni Public art 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists Polish emigrants to the United States