Biography

Jules Olitski was an American painter and sculptor of Ukrainian origin. He is considered an important representative of abstract art.

Olitski, who was born a few months after the execution of his father by the Soviet government, fled to the United States with his mother and grandmother in 1923 and grew up in Brooklyn. In 1926 his mother married the widower Hyman Olitski, who brought two more sons into the marriage. From 1939 to 1942 Olitski attended the National Academy of Design in New York and then the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York.

As Olitski took part in the Second World War, he had to interrupt his education until 1949 and then studied at the Academie Grande Chaumiere in Paris with Ossip Zadkine. He completed his studies in 1954 as a Master of Arts at New York University. In the 1960s Olitski made a name for himself as a representative of Colorfield painting. In 1968 he participated in the 4th documenta in Kassel.

In 1991 Jules Olitski was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1994 in New York as a member (NA) of the National Academy and in 2006 as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.2 Olitski lived and worked in studios in New Hampshire and Florida. Jules Olitski died of cancer on 4 February 2007.

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ARTWORKS Jules Olitski

Jules Olitski
Mozart Night (Lincoln Center Print), 1991
Monoprint
119.38 x 91.44 cm
Jules Olitski
Mozart Night (Lincoln Center Print)

1991

Monoprint

119.38 x 91.44 cm

signed lower right, numbered lower left

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Monoprint Edition 1/4

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Jules Olitski
Toora, 1986
silkscreen on hand-colored paper
56.5 x 76.2 cm
Jules Olitski
Toora

1986

silkscreen on hand-colored paper

56.5 x 76.2 cm

verso signed, dated and titled

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from the artist’s edition XII/XXV

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Jules Olitski
But Suddenly II, 1982
acrylic on canvas
198.75 x 145.5 cm
Jules Olitski
But Suddenly II

1982

acrylic on canvas

198.75 x 145.5 cm

verso signed, dated and titled

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Provenance

  • The Henclus Gallery, NY
  • Corperate Collection General Electrics (GE), Fairfield, CT
  • Collection Daniel Barr, NY
  • Private collection, Switzerland
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