Ary Stillman

Ary Stillman (February 13, 1891 – January 28, 1967) was a representational and abstract Russian-American painter born in Hresk near Slutsk, Belarus. He excelled in art as a youth, and after graduating from school he was accepted into the Imperial School of Art in Vilna.

Stillman immigrated to the United States after less than two years at the Imperial School, landing in Sioux City, Iowa at the age of 16. He worked in a local jewelry store to pay the bills, but spent every moment he could painting. After a short stint at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ary once again was on the move, relocating to New York City in 1919 at the age of 28. In New York, he studied at the National Academy of Design (the predecessor of what is now the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts).

Never one to let grass beneath his feet, Ary once again moved in 1921, this time to Paris, where he lived and worked for 12 years. He experienced commercial and artistic success in Paris, including a one-man show at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune and regular exhibits at the Salon d'Automne, Salone National des Beaux-Arts and the Salon de Tulleries. Although his work had been largely objective until the early 1930s, a careful study of his early art reveals the roots of his later abstract work and shows his interest in the artistic arrangement of shapes to convey a subjective meaning.

Ary Stillman returned to New York in 1933 as a successful and well-known artist. Among other galleries, from 1935-1937 Ary exhibited at the Guild Art Gallery owned and directed by Margaret Lefranc. His work during this time became more subjective (although still representational). At this time Ary became more concerned with his interpretation of the deeper inner content of his subject, and less interested with its objective outer form. When the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed, Ary abruptly shifted his focus to abstract works, and by 1948, his work was completely non-objective. During the early 1950s Ary had a one-person show every year at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York City.

...
Wikipedia