Emerson Woelffer Art
American, 1914-2003
Once dubbed “the Grandfather of L.A. Modernism,” the Chicago-born Emerson Seville Woelffer was active as an innovative painter, collagist, and educator throughout his long and prolific career. A pioneering Abstract Expressionist, Woelffer’s brightly colored work with jagged forms reveals Cubist and Surrealist influences.
Coming of age in Chicago during the Great Depression, Woelffer appreciated the improvisational nature of jazz music, a sensibility he would later apply to painting through gestural variation, energetic strokes, and a rhythmic use of line. From 1935 to 1938, Woelffer, a high school dropout, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago while employed as a janitor, early evidence of his enduring work ethic.
He joined the Works Progress Administration arts program in 1938 as an easel painter, followed by a two-year stint as a topographical draftsman for the United States Air Force. The director of the Chicago Institute of Design, László Moholy-Nagy, invited Woelffer to join the faculty in 1942. His experiences there brought him into contact with the modernist idiom of the day, and his interactions with students caused him to re-examine his own practice.
He also exhibited in group shows at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, participated in the Whitney Museum Annual (1949) and won the Pauline Palmer Prize for painting at the Art Institute of Chicago (1948).
In 1949 Emerson Woelffer and his wife Dina, a fine art photographer, were invited by Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner to New York before they headed to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Exposure to Pre-Columbian art led Woelffer to incorporate totemic figures and vibrant colors into his abstract paintings.
In 1959 Woelffer joined the faculty at the Chouinard Art Institute (later the California Institute of the Arts) in Los Angeles, where he instructed notable emerging artists until 1973 and where he was instrumental in bringing Modernism to LA. Ed Ruscha was one of his students. In 1974, Woelffer was named chair of the art department at the Otis Art Institute (now the Otis School of Art and Design). His tenure lasted until his retirement in 1989, and he was widely admired for his interdisciplinary approach in the classroom. An endowed scholarship fund in his name provides support for promising young artists and designers. Suffering from macular degeneration, Woelffer switched to drawing with white crayon on black paper in his final years of artistic activity.
Emerson won a prestigious Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1967 and then went to wprk in Europe. Woelffer’s work is represented in the collections of such distinguished institutions as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others.to
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Artist: Emerson Woelffer
Early Abstract Expressionist - Black Mountain College Teacher, Franz Kline
By Emerson Woelffer
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With Abstract Expressionist painting, one could argue that the earlier, the more historically important. This stunning non-objective action painting is characterized by vast swaths o...
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1950s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Art
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Abstract Form No. 1
By Emerson Woelffer
Located in Columbia, MO
EMERSON WOELFFER
Abstract Form No. 1
1979
Porcelain on wooden plinth
3.5 x 3.5 x 11.5 inches
Category
20th Century Abstract Emerson Woelffer Art
Materials
Wood
Untitled, 1968
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This lithograph is by Emerson Woelffer (1914-2003), a noted American abstract artist. The print is untitled, but it depicts a pair of lips, an image that Woellfer used in a number of...
Category
1960s Abstract Emerson Woelffer Art
Materials
Lithograph
Abstract Form No. 2
By Emerson Woelffer
Located in Columbia, MO
EMERSON WOELFFER
Abstract Form No. 2
1979
Terra cotta on wooden plinth
3.5 x 5.5 x 8.5 inches
Category
20th Century Abstract Emerson Woelffer Art
Materials
Wood, Terracotta
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Emerson Woelffer art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Emerson Woelffer art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue, red and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Emerson Woelffer in lithograph, paint, wood and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Emerson Woelffer art, so small editions measuring 4 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Gerome Kamrowski, August Mosca, and Thom Cooney-Crawford. Emerson Woelffer art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,500 and tops out at $12,500, while the average work can sell for $6,240.