Greene Contemporary will be showing paintings by Syd Solomon from Saturday January 12th through Saturday February 2nd. A preview will inaugurate the exhibition on Friday January 11th from 6 to 9 pm. This exhibition will survey Solomon's work from the nineteen-sixties through the nineteen-eighties. Many of the works retained by the artist for his own collection have not been seen before. The exhibition of oil and acrylic paintings as well as work on paper will manifest the enduring power of this important abstract painter's work. Solomon was a legend in Sarasota and East Hampton and the paintings from two decades of his work showcase him at the pinnacle of his power as a painter. An essay in a new publication released by Greene Contemporary will contextualize Solomon's work within the history of American painting after the end of World War II.
In 1966, the Ringling Museum acquired a Solomon as its first purchase of a living artist's work. The painting was titled by Jacques Cousteau who, when he visited Solomon's Sarasota studio in 1961, marveled at how much the image reminded him of the underworld of the sea. Cousteau looked at the painting and said "That is the Silent World." It was in the sixties that Solomon began using in his painting process a resist that was developed by Guy Pascal, a research chemist, who was also living in Sarasota. This resist changed Solomon's approach to painting. Initially his approach to painting was additive. After being introduced to the resist it became reductive as well. He had the luxury of reducing portions of the surface he had painted by brushing on this resist that later could be washed off with water. He would unmask earlier portions of the canvas that he had disguised and he could give his paintings the appearance of having numerous translucent layers. From the early sixties until the early nineties Solomon was consistently showing his work in one person and group shows throughout the world. Solomon's paintings look as fresh today as the day they were painted. His legacy is to engage us through his work in a timeless dialogue with the power and mystery of nature.
Solomon (1917-2004) was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1935-1938.) After serving in Europe during World War II he attended L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1945.) In Sarasota, he enrolled in the Ringling School of Art & Design (1946-47.) He has exhibited his work throughout the world and is included in the permanent collections of numerous museums including The Baltimore Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, The Chrysler Museum, Cincinnati Art Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, High Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Norton Gallery of Art, Parrish Museum of Art, The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Tampa Museum of Art, Tel Aviv Museum, Wadsworth Athenaeum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.