Description
Original watercolor abstract
16 watercolors
art 4″w x 5 1/2″h, frame 8 3/4″w x 10 1/4″h
$295.00 each. Pick up only
Abstract art by Jacob Semiatin
Jacob Semiatin (1915-2003) Abstract Paintings Watercolor on paper Each signed “Semiatin” on front and dated in pencil 77 verso
Description
Born in Dublin, Ireland to Hungarian Jewish parents, his family immigrated in 1920 to New York City where he lived and thrived.
During the 1930’s and 1940’s he painted realistic industrial, urban life and bucolic landscapes. After serving during World War II his paintings moved toward more abstract than figurative. During the mid 1940’s and 1950’s Semiatin was involved in the art movement of Abstract Expressionism in NYC. This New York school was comprised of independent thinker artists, musicians and writers. Painters were known to create on the spot large scale pieces with expressive gestural strokes.
What makes Semiatin stand out is he worked with watercolor with approaching “color field painting.” It’s about deploying color in an abstract non-figurative form. Watercolor a difficult medium to master played into this approach with its natural properties. He had a controlled chaos of swirls, waves, spirals, opaque lines and flowing washes.
In 1957 his first solo exhibition of abstractions was held at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in New York. A world famous gallery which also exhibited Mark Rothko and Mark Tobey peers of Semiatin. He also showed at the Brooklyn Society of Artists and Brooklyn Museum. He had close ties and friendship with James Johnson Sweeney, Director of the Guggenheim Museum (1952-1960). Semiatin was truly a gifted artist who painted in NYC and upstate NY until he died in 2003.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Society of Artists, Brooklyn, NY
Contemporary Arts Gallery, New York, NY
Galerie Internationale, New York, NY
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY
MUSEUM & PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Ellen Zeman & Paul Hale Collection, Burlington, VT
Historic Arkansas Museum, Little Rock, AR
Irish Jewish Museum, Dublin, Ireland
James Johnson Sweeney, Director of the Guggenheim Museum (1952-1960)
John Olson Collection, Burlington, VT
Rick and Sue Miller Collection, Beverly Hills, CA
Ted Turner Collection
William J. Clinton library