Henry Kallem

"Objects on Table" by Henry Kallem, Mid-Century, American Abstract Still Life

Henry Kallem, A painter in abstract style who used wide brush marks and also a printmaker. Kallem was born in Philadelphia. His father was Morris Kallem, a portrait painter, with whom he studied and his brother was sculptor Herbert Kallem. Kallem's studio was in New York City and he and his associates were a part of a group of modernists who called themselves the 28th Street group of modernists because they hung around the Henry and David Rothman Frame Shop on 28th Street. Kallem and others of this group also spent much time in the summer painting in Provincetown and Monhegan Island. He was also a member of the National Society of Painters in Casein and exhibited widely including at the Pennsylvania Academy, the 1939 New York World's Fair and the Pepsi Cola Exhibition of 1947 where he won first prize for his painting Country Tenement. This award caused consternation because of his abstract style and Life magazine, August 1948, ran an article referencing the award with the headline Freak Painting Prizes. Kallem was also a teacher in his studio and in a private school in Roslyn, New York, and at the New York City YWCA.