ARTHUR ROSSKAM ABRAMS Art

Original colorful and vibrant acrylic abstract figurative painting on heavy cardstock by the American artist, Arthur Rosskam Abrams. Signed lower left. Condition is very good to excellent. Circa 1975. The painting with abstract colorful figures was mostly likely executed in Sarasota where the artist had moved to in 1973. Framed with off white linen mat and gold leaf frame. Under glass.. Frame with some imperfections. Frame with “Frame St. Pete” label verso. Overall framed measurements 36.5 by 30.5 inches. Provenance: Sarasota, Florida collector. Arthur Rosskam Abrams 1909-1981 The following, submitted August 2005, is from Paul J. Abrams, son of the artist Born February 21, 1909 in Philadelphia, Arthur Abrams began drawing as a child of five, and continued producing art until just before his death in Sarasota, Florida during 1981. He began studies at the Graphic Sketch Club of Philadelphia, later teaching and exhibiting there. 1924 brought a scholarship to the Philadelphia College of Art, but his lack of interest in commercial art had him move to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1927 he went to Paris, studying where he could, including Academie Julian, The Academie Colarossi, the Ecole de la Grande Chaumiere, and then he found Andre L'Hote, who experimented with presenting space without perspective. Adams felt he had found what he had been looking for. Later he studied with Hans Hoffman at his School Fine Arts, Munich, where he became further convinced that art did not have to consist of a photo like quality of an object, but could be concepts, of personal expression of the artist. He toured around with other artists into Italy and Spain, meeting the artists of the day and painting. While painting around The Sacre Coeur some man, 'slightly under the weather' asked if he were an American. He replied that he was, and asked if he and the man had met at the Picabia exhibition, the man said they had, and his name was Maurice Utrillo. He told Arthur that if he remained there in France he will become a great painter, but if he went back to America he would become a businessman. He did return to America at the end of 1929 because his scholarship money was about gone. He had a one-man show in McClees Gallery, in Philadelphia, putting the proceeds of the sale in the Bankers Trust Company, which he lost when the company failed. He then traveled between Philadelphia and New York. In 1931, he did some traveling to Elmira to visit Sally Frank whom he had met in Philadelphia, and he also did and painting and sketching around the area. While sketching on the Louis Hoftrup farm near Elmira, Hoftrup came up to him and said he had a brother Lars, who was an artist living in New York and said Arthur should look him up when back in New York City. In September of 1931 his first New York one-man show was held at the Fifteen Gallery on West 57th Street. This was a gallery owned by artists to by-pass restrictive dealers and high commissions. Unfortunately a number of his paintings were kept in a studio in the Lincoln Arcade Building when it burned down. Still mainly in New York he became a charter member of the American Art Congress, and later of Artists' Equity. In the summer he went to Elmira where he, Lars Hoftrup and Armand Wargny...