Ernest Briggs
This biographical article is written like a résumé. (November 2011) |
Ernest P. Briggs Jr. | |
---|---|
Born | San Diego, California, U.S. | December 24, 1923
Died | June 12, 1984 New York City, U.S. | (aged 60)
Occupation | Abstract Expressionist Painter |
Ernest P. Briggs Jr. (1923–1984) was a second-generation Abstract Expressionist painter known for his expressive, sometimes calligraphic brushwork, his geometric compositions,[1] and revolution in abstract painting that secured New York City's position as the art capital of the world in the post-World War II period.[2]
Biography
Briggs was born on December 24, 1923, in San Diego, California.[3][4] He went on to serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II (1943–1946), where he spent 18 months in Tampa and a year in India.[4]
Briggs studied painting at the Schaeffer School of Design, San Francisco, California (1946–47) and later at The California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco (1947-1951), where he thrived under the tutelage of such ab-ex greats as Clyfford Still, Ad Reinhardt, David Park, and Mark Rothko.[5] According to New York Times critic Grace Glueck, Briggs was largely impacted by the "painterly rhetoric" of his teacher Clyfford Still during and after his time at CSFA.[6]
Considered a member of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists, along with Giorgio Cavallon, Briggs left California for New York in 1953 where he began exhibiting at the Stable Gallery. During the 1950s, he was able to make a name for himself through his explosive and dynamic style as part of the New York City avant-garde. Briggs brought to the East Coast a fresh, lively aesthetic, reflecting what has been termed a "radical West Coast style" that he had continued to develop since his days at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. He participated in several Whitney Museum Annuals and in 1956 was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “12 Americans” curated by Dorothy Miller.[7][8] He taught painting and sculpture at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from 1961[1] until the time of his death at age 61, and is survived by his wife Anne Arnold, who is also an artist.[9]
The dynamism and at some points discord in Briggs' work is best suggested by the following quote from his obituary, published on June 14, 1984, in The New York Times:
- "Sometimes Mr. Briggs's emphasis was on strong, lyrical color and thick brush strokes that called attention to the act of painting. Sometimes, as in his exhibition earlier this year at the Gruenebaum Gallery in New York, his work was more linear and geometric, and the expressive element was dependent upon a strong, almost translucent light within grays and blues."[9]
This biographical article is written like a résumé. (November 2011) |
Selected solo exhibitions
- 1949: (first) Metart Gallery, San Francisco, California
- 1954/55: Stable Gallery, New York City
- 1956: San Francisco Art Association Gallery, California
- 1960/62/63: The Howard Wise Gallery, New York
- 1968: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- 1969: Alonzo Gallery, New York
- 1973: Green Mountain Gallery, New York
- 1975: Susan Caldwell Gallery, Inc., New York
- 1977: Aaron Berman Gallery, New York
- 1980: Landmark Gallery, New York
- 1980/82: Gruenebaum Gallery, New York
- 1984: Memorial Exhibition, Gruenebaum Gallery
- 1991: With Edward Dugmore, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York City
- 1992: With Ibram Lassaw, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 1994: With Clement Meadmore and Erik van der Grijn, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 1996: Two Painters and a Sculptor (with Clement Meadmore and Erik van der Grijn), Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 1998: Abstract Paintings from the 1950s to the 1970s (with Michael Loew), Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 2001: Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 2002: Abstract Expressionist Paintings from the 1950s, Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, City University of New York
- 2004: Ernest Briggs: Paintings of the 50s and 60s, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 2005: Ernest Briggs: Paintings of 50s & 60s, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 2006-07: Nassos Daphnis & Ernest Briggs: OPPOSING FORCES, Anita Shaplosky Gallery
Selected group exhibitions
- 1948/49/53: San Francisco Art Association Annuals
- 1953: Five Bay Area Artists, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California
- 1955/56/61: Annuals and Biennials, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
- 1956: 12 Americans, circle, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
- 1961: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 1962/1961, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas; Contemporary Art Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
- 1963: Directions-Painting-USA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
- 1967: Large–Scale American Painting, Jewish Museum, New York; Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
- 1969, 70: American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
- 1970: Proctor Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; San Francisco 1945-1950, Oakland Art Museum, California
- 1976: California Painting and Sculpture: The Modern Era, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
- 1977: Bay Area Update, Huntsville Museum of Art, Alabama
- 1978: Cape Split Place, Addison, Maine
- 1984: Underknown, Institute for Art & Urban Resources, P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York
- 1989: Anne Weber Gallery, Georgetown, Maine; Portland Museum of Art, Maine
- 1991: The Prevailing Fifties, also with Edward Dugmore, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York City
- 1992: The Tradition, also with Ibram Lassaw, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 1994: New York–Provincetown: A 50s Connection, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts; Maryland Art Institute, Maryland
- 1994/96: Josiah White Exhibition Center, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
- 1995: The Fifties, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 1996: Other Artists of the 50s, Kendall Campus Art Gallery, Miami–Dade Community College, Florida; The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
- 1997: Artists of the 1950s, Part 1 and 2, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 1998: Paper Works, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 1998-99: Artists of the 50s; The Development of Abstraction, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 1999: Abstract Expressionist Tradition, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 2000: Art For Art’s Sake–Credo of the Fifties, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 2004: San Francisco and the Second Wave: The Blair Collection of Bay Area Abstract Expressionism, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Re-Examining Abstract Art, Part 2, Anita Shapolsky Gallery; New York School Artists: Works Of the 50s and 60s, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
- 2005: While Pollock Was Sleeping: Bay Area Abstract Expressionism from the Blair Collection, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California; The Invisible In The Visible, Anita Shapolsky Gallery
Selected public collections
- Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
- Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Rockefeller Institute, New York City
- Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC,
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
- San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
- Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
- Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
References
- ^ a b "ERNEST BRIGGS, ARTIST AND FOR 2 DECADES A TEACHER AT PRATT". The New York Times. 1984-06-14. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
- ^ "Ernest Briggs: Abstract Expressionist of the 1950s"
- ^ American abstract expressionism of the 1950s : An illustrated survey
- ^ a b Three Decades of Ernest Briggs, Anita Shapolsky Gallery & A.S. Art Foundation, New York City, January 26, 2017, page 4.
- ^ Oral history interview with Ernest Briggs, 1982 July 12-October 21, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
- ^ ART IN REVIEW; Ernest Briggs
- ^ Ernest Briggs Monumental Paintings Archived 2010-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Artist’s World In Pictures
- ^ a b ERNEST BRIGGS, ARTIST AND FOR 2 DECADES A TEACHER AT PRATT
Sources
- 12 Americans (edited by Dorothy C. Miller; Published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, 1956.) OCLC: 510514
- San Francisco and the second wave : the Blair collection of Bay area abstract expressionism, (Sacramento, CA : Crocker Art Museum, 2004.) ISBN 1-884038-09-3
- Painting and sculpture in California, the modern era, (San Francisco: The Museum, 1977.) OCLC: 3370173
- Out of Darkness, Light, (by Bruce Nixon, in Arts and Antiques, October 2012)
Books
- Thomas Albright, Art in the San Francisco Bay area, 1945-1980 : an illustrated history, (Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, ©1985.) ISBN 0-520-05193-9
- Susan Landauer, The San Francisco school of abstract expressionism (Berkeley : University of California Press, ©1996.) ISBN 0-520-08610-4
- Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4. pp. 54–57
- Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6. p. 32; p. 36
- Marika Herskovic, American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless (New York School Press, 2009.) ISBN 978-0-9677994-2-1. pp. 52–55
External links
- Ernest Briggs paintings-from the exhibition at the Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York City