Victor Thall

'Abstract in Lilac and Blue', Whitney Museum, New York School, WPA

Born in New York in 1902, Victor Thall first attended the Art Students League in New York City where he studied under Arthur B. Davies, George Bellows, John Sloan and Robert Henri. He furthered his studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before leaving for Paris, in 1924, to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Academie Julien. He remained in France for six formative years before returning to the United States in the early 1930's. Back in New York, he became friendly with Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky and was both influenced and inspired by the ferment of ideas that developed around the New York School during the late 1940's and early 1950's. Thall was also an active participant in the WPA New Deal Art Project of New York City between 1935 and 1939 and returned to the Art Students League as a teacher from 1947-9. He exhibited widely and with success including at the Whitney Museum Annuals of 1949 and 1950 and the Leicester Gallery, London, in 1961. Victor Thall's paintings are held in numerous private and public collections including the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Newark Museum and the artist is listed in all relevant reference works including Who Was Who in American Art. Select Exhibitions: 1968 DePoliolo Gallery, Palm Springs 1965 Studio Gallery, Naples, Florida 1964 L’lnstitute Francais d’Haiti 1964 Summit Gallery, New York City 1964 Southampton Gallery, New York City 1963 Guildhall Gallery, Chicago 1961 Leicester Gallery, London 1950 Whitney Museum , New York City 1949 Whitney Museum, New York City 1947 Binet Gallery, New York City 1946 Chinese Gallery, New York City 1944 Levitt Gallery, New York City 1944 Milch Gallery, New York City 1944 O’Connor Gallery, New York City 1943 Puma Gallery, New York City Reference: Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 3, p. 3273; Falk, Peter Hastings , ed. The Annual and Biennial Exhibition Record of the Whitney Museum of Art 1918-1989. (New York): Sound View Press, 1991; Levick, L.E., "A Guide to the Art Galleries," New York Journal American, May 23, 1964. Review of one-man show at Southampton Gallery; 1950 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1950; Coates, Robert M., "The Art Galleries: Paul Klee, The Whitney Annual, and John Marin, The New Yorker, December 31, 1949, pp. 42-43; 1949 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting. New York: Whitney; Museum of American Art, 1949; Lansford, Alonzo, "Thall at Binet," The Art Digest' December 15, 1947, ill; Upton, Melville, "George Binet Gallery," Sun, December 13, 1947; Devree, Howard, "Victor Thall at the Binet Gallery," New York Times, December 10, 1947; "Victor Thall at Binet Gallery," Art News, December 1947, p. 59; Oil Paintings by Victor Thall, New York: George Binet Gallery, 1947; et al.