Jack Youngerman, Blue/Yellow from the NYC Center of Music & Drama Portfolio, 1968

Jack Youngerman

Blue/Yellow from New York City Center of Music & Drama Portfolio, 1968

Silkscreen on wove paper

Signed, numbered and dated in graphite by Jack Youngerman on the front

This dramatic, richly-colored limited edition, signed and numbered 1960s silkscreen was created by Jack Youngerman as part of the New York City Center of Music and Drama portfolio, to raise funds for its 25th anniversary celebration. Youngerman has had a long and prolific career with major museum shows at the Guggenheim and the MoMA amongst others. Working in bold saturated colors, Youngerman often reduces common forms from nature to their simplest shape. This iconic and uplifting work is emblematic of his practice. Youngerman often synthesizes the best characteristics of Robert Motherwell and Ellsworth Kelly creating bold and highly original compositions. Youngerman studied in Paris in the late 1940's on the GI Bill and was greatly influenced by the European modernists notably the precise cutout shapes of Jean Arp and the primary colors and stylized florals of Henri Matisse. This iconic screenprint was based upon an original drawing that was owned by renowned New York city official and art collector Werner Kramarsky, who prominently exhibited it in his New York office, a photograph of which appeared in his New York Times obituary, shown here. (Kramarsky donated much of his collection to Harvard, and his papers were donated to MOMA where he was a Trustee.)
The present work is held in its original 1960s vintage metal frame and ships framed.
Measurements:
Framed:
35 inches x 25 inches x 1 inch
Artwork:
34 inches x 25 inches
Jack Youngerman Biography:
Youngerman was born in Missouri in 1926, and studied at the University of Missouri for a year before being drafted to the Navy in 1944. After being discharged, he completed his studies in journalism in 1947, then enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris on the GI Bill. He remained in France until 1956, when he returned to New York with the encouragement of gallerist Betty Parsons. He held his first New York exhibition in 1958. The next year, he was included alongside Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ellsworth Kelly in the pivotal exhibition “Sixteen Americans” at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1966, his works appeared with that of Jo Baer, Agnes Martin, and Kenneth Noland in the group exhibition “Systemic Painting” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, curated by Lawrence Alloway. A series of solo exhibitions at Betty Parsons, Pace, and Washburn Gallery followed, then a 1986 retrospective at the Guggenheim.