Busacca Gallery

This is a true silkscreen abstract masterpiece by one of the great Neoplasticism abstract artists. Ilya Bolotowsky (Russian/American, 1907-1981) "Diamond". Screenprint in colors, ca. 1970, signed in corner and numbered 52/125 in pencil, matted and framed overall 27 x 27 in. Very Rare Print Silkscreen on Hi-White paper,  Signed in pencil and marked by the artist. Ilya Bolotowsky was born in Petrograd, Russia in 1907. He died in the USA in 1981. Bolotowsky emigrated to the United States in 1923 and became an American citizen in 1929. He studied at National Academy for Design in New York 1924-30, and won drawing prizes, painting prizes, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Scholarship, and the Yaddo Foundation Fellowship. Bolotowsky was influenced by Mondrians in the Gallatin Collection, and Miros at Pierre Matisse Gallery, which led to his first abstract work in 1933. Bolotowsky was a member of The Ten with Rothko, Gottlieb, and others in the mid-1930's. He was an active member of the WPA Federal Arts Project and was co-founder and charter member of the American Abstract Artists. Bolotowsky taught at Brooklyn College, Hunter College, University of Wisconsin, University of New Mexico, and Columbia University. He won the Abstract Painting Prize from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and grants from the Museum of Non-objective Painting in New York. He is well known for his public murals including the ones at: the Hall of Medical Science at the 1936 World's Fair; Chronic Diseases Hospital in New York; two for the Phillips Steel Company in Pittsburgh; Cinema I and the Passenger Ship Terminal in New York. Bolotowsky's work is collected by major world corporations including: New York's Chase Manhattan Bank and Ciba-Geigy. The list of galleries and museums which have exhibited his work is extensive. Bolotowsky is collected in major museums including: New York's Whitney Museum of American Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Washington's Joseph H. Hirshorn Collection, and the National Collection of Fine Arts at the Smithsonian Institution. Condition: Not inspected out of frame. Frame with wear. Visible surface discolorations. * * All of the art is edited and chosen by us for its high quality and workmanship before posting. These collectibles have been selected with the artist & collector in mind. We are committed to enhancing our customer’s lives by discovering creating, and pointing out only the best art we can find in the world today. We Are Taste-Makers, Art Advisers, Consultants & Publishers Of Spectacular Art Stories. Our job is to be intermediaries between buyers and sellers. We are vetting for high end art patrons. We are determined to catalog the world's most exceptional art and share it with everyone.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Bolotowsky

Ilya Bolotowsky (July 1, 1907 – November 22, 1981) was a leading early 20th-century painter in abstract styles in New York City. His work, a search for philosophical order through visual expression, embraced cubism and geometric abstraction and was much influenced by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.



Born to Jewish parents in St. Petersburg, Russia, Bolotowsky immigrated to America in 1923 via Constantinople, settling in New York City. He attended the National Academy of Design. He became associated with a group called "The Ten Whitney Dissenters," or simply "The Ten," artists, including Louis Schanker, Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko and Joseph Solman, who rebelled against the strictures of the Academy and held independent exhibitions.

During this period, Bolotowsky came under the influence of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian and the tenets of neoplasticism, a movement that advocated the possibility of ideal order in the visual arts. Bolotowsky adopted his mentor's use of horizontal and vertical geometric pattern and a palette restricted to primary colors and neutrals.



In 1936, having turned to geometric abstractions, he was one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists, a cooperative formed to promote the interests of abstract painters and to increase understanding between themselves and the public.



He taught at Black Mountain College during the period 1946–1948, Kenneth Noland was among his students.



Bolotowsky's mural for the Williamsburg Housing Project in Brooklyn, was one of the first abstract murals done under the Federal Art Project. Despite Bolotowsky's clear, precise control of his images, he emphasized the role of intuition over formula in determining his compositions.

In the 1960s, he began making three-dimensional forms, usually vertical and straight-sided. He taught humanities and fine arts at the Southampton, New York campus of Long Island University and The University of New Mexico.



On September 21, 2012, Sotheby's auctioned a Bolotowsky painting that was found at a North Carolina Goodwill store for $8 and was sold for $34,375.