Ilya Bolotowsky - 1907-1981
 
 

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Ilya Bolotowsky had a legendary career that involved painting, sculpture, mural production, as well as teaching and also filmmaking. He was an idealist who constantly embraced new trends in search for order and balance in response to his tumultous upbringing in Russia. Bolotowsky was a socially progressive thinker who devoted his life to enriching the abstract tradition. He found that the geometric discipline of the cerebreal Neoplasticism exemplified by Piet Mondrian was a way to express his desire for a dynamic equilibrium. His geometric abstractions of the 1950s achieved a sophisticated balance of linear spatial divisions and striking color tonalities. In a review of his 1974 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, which traveled to Washington D.C.'s National Gallery, his work was singled out at scarcely human, commanding a design sense of such power and flexibility.
Selected One -Person Exhibitions
1930 G.R.D. Studios, New York
1946 New Art Circle, J.B. Neumann, New York
1949 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
1950 Rose Fried Gallery, New York
1952 New Art Circle, J.B. Neuman, New York
1954 Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York (also 1956,1958,1959,1961,1963,1966,1968,1970,1974,1976,1978,1980)
1960 State University College of Education, New Paltz, New York
1965 Parish Art Museum, South Hampton, New York
1970 IIya Bolotowsky Paintings and Columns, traveling to Newport Harbor Art Museum, Balboa, California, University of Colorado, Boulder, University Art Museum of New Mexico, Albuquerque, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City
1973 Recent Serigraphs, Wichita Art Museum, Kansas
1974 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, IIya Bolotowsky, travelled to the National Collection, Washington, D.C.
1980 IIya Bolotowsky, WPA Murals: Paintings From 1935 to 1945, Washburn Gallery, New York
1981 Salt Lake Art Center, Utah
1982 Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
1983 Bolotowsky And His Circle, New York University Grey Art Gallery
1984 Five Decades, Washburn Gallery, New York IL Punto Blu Gallery, Southampton, New York River Gallery, Irvington-On-Hudson, New York Pembroke Gallery, Houston, Texas

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1994 The Edge, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
1995 Artists of The Fifties, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
1997 Artists of The Fifties, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
Special Collection, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
Collector's Choice, Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Fl
1998 Artists of the 1950's Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
1999 The Abstract Expressionist Tradition, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York
2000-01 Credo of the Fifties, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York

Murals
1936 Williamsburg Housing Project, New York
1939 Hall of Medical Science, World's Fair, New York
1946 Phillips Steel Co., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1963 Cinema 1, New York
1968 Southampton College, New York
1973 North Central Bronx Hospital, New York
1978 Social Securities Service Building, Chicago, Illinois
1979 Port Authority Ship Terminal, New York
1981 Houston Intercontinental Airport, Terminal C, Houston, Texas
(Reconstruction of World's Fair Mural)

Public Collections
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Ct
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Al
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT
Gotheborg Museum, Gotheborg, Sweden
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
Jerusalem Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Lyman Alyn Museum, New London, CT
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Michener Art Museum, University of Texas, Austin, TX
University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
Musee d'Art Moderne, Ceret, France
Museum of Fine Arts, Calcutta, India
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Modern Art, New York,NY
National Collection of Fine Arts Washington, D.C.
Newark Museum Association, Newark, NJ
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton NJ
University of New Mexico, Albuqueque,NM
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I.
Edward Root Collection, Utica, New York
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Salt Lake City Art Center, Salt LAke City
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NB
Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT
Societe Anonyme Yale University, New Haven, CT
J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Il
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven,

Catalogued Exhibitions
Art For Art's Sake - Credo of the 50's
Tuesday, November 7, 2000 - Saturday, January 13, 2001
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, 152 East 65th Street, New York, New York 10021, United States

68 Years / 68 Masters
Thursday, November 16, 2000 - Saturday, December 9, 2000
ACA Galleries, 529 West 20th Street, New York, New York 10011, United States

The Abstract Expressionist Tradition
Opened Thursday, June 10, 1999
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, 152 East 65th Street, New York, New York 10021, United States

Defining the Edge: Early American Abstraction
Selections from the Collection of Dr. Peter B. Fischer
Thursday, March 26, 1998 - Saturday, May 30, 1998
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019, United States

Artists of the 1950's
Saturday, April 19, 1997 - Wednesday, September 17, 1997
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, 152 East 65th Street, New York, New York 10021, United States

Modern American Artists in Paris in the 1920's & 1930's
On view at Galerie Gerald Piltzer, Paris, October 3 - November 23, 1996.
Thursday, March 20, 1997 - Saturday, May 17, 1997
Gary Snyder Fine Art, 20 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019, United States
 

A Tribute to Grace Borgenicht Gallery, The 1950's: The First Decade
Tuesday, February 4, 1997 - Saturday, March 1, 1997
DC Moore Gallery, 724 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10019, United States

Special Collection
Friday, November 14, 1997 - Saturday, January 10, 1998
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, 152 East 65th Street, New York, New York 10021, United States

Affinities: Contemporary and Historical Art
Thursday, July 11, 1996 - Saturday, September 14, 1996
Gary Snyder Fine Art, 20 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019, United States