Ilya Bolotowsky
American, born Russia, 1907 - 1981Untitled, n.d.
Not on view
Silkscreen on paper
Dimensions28 1/4 × 30 1/4 in. (71.8 × 76.8 cm)
Gift of Edith Gutow, 2008.261
Ilya Bolotowsky was born to Jewish parents in St. Petersburg, Russia. After surviving World War I and the Russian Revolution, he immigrated to America and settled in New York City where he became one of the leading early twentieth-century abstract painters. After attending the National Academy of Design, Bolotowsky became associated with ‘The Ten’, which was a group of artists who held independent exhibitions to rebel against the strictures of academic art. Fully embracing geometric abstraction, he helped to establish the ‘American Abstract Artists’, a cooperative formed to promote the interests of abstract painters and to increase understanding between themselves and the public. During this time, Bolotowsky was greatly influenced by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. He adopted Mondrian’s use of horizontal and vertical geometric patterns and a palette restricted to primary colors and neutrals.
