“It was much easier then for the early abstract expressionists to be true to themselves because they had fewer alternatives--they were not being beguiled by the money”

  -Barbara Shikler, for the archives of American Art’s “Mark Rothko and His times”

The Anita Shapolsky Gallery proudly presents “Artists’ Artists”: art made for art’s sake. Featuring works from the opposing forces of Abstract Expressionism’s avant-garde, personal vision and unique styling take precedence when artists are motivated by their own desires.

Featuring work by:

Seymour Boardman

Ilya Bolotowsky

Ernest Briggs

John Hultberg

Avoiding the fashionable trends of the 1960s, Seymour Boardman’s work resonates like jazz within images reduced to their essence. Called a geometric colorist, his style deviated from the iconic bold and autonomous gestural brushwork of the times in favor of deliberate eliminations creating negative space, eliciting a dark, contemplative beauty.

Ilya Bolotowsky, “an heir to Mondrian”, was a member of The Ten Whitney Dissenters and a fierce advocate for abstract expressionism. His work further refined De Stijl, showing how neoplasticism “can achieve unequaled tension, equilibrium, and harmony” within nuanced coloration and form.

Having studied with Clyfford Stills, Ernest Briggs was a believer that artists should exist outside of a system. His art became “the epitome of the abstract impulse”, often distinguished by bold, sensual brush strokes and color, evoking consideration of technique as well as emotion.

A member of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, John Hultberg often distorted landscapes and interiors with recognizable prophetic, apocalyptic visions, departing from the dominant style of the New York School Abstract Expressionism.