Skip to main content

Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

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
1
2
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
3
1
1
1
3
3
2
1
1
1
1
12
295
266
150
148
3
3
Artist: Emerson Woelffer
Emerson Woelffer, Bold Torn-Edge Collage, Signed Abstract Expressionist Work
By Emerson Woelffer
Located in Buffalo, NY
Emerson Woelffer Untitled Abstract Collage, 1989 Mixed media collage on paper Dimensions: 32 x 26 inches (framed) Signed and dated lower right A striking example of Emerson Woelffer...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Untitled, Oil Stick and Collage on paper, Abstract, 1989, Manny Silverman Col
By Emerson Woelffer
Located in New York, NY
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 prolif...
Category

1980s Abstract Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

UNTITLED 1977, Paper Collage, 29" x 23" framed orange, green, blue and black
By Emerson Woelffer
Located in New York, NY
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 prolif...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Related Items
Original Contemporary Minimalist Large scale Texture painting Burnt Orange Oil
By Svetlana Shalygina
Located in Maricopa, AZ
"The Sacred Color" is an original minimalist oversized painting by the late Svetlana Shalygina. It is a part of the limited series sought after by interior designers for its ability ...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic

Contemporary Minimalist Abstract Textured Large Scale Painting
By Svetlana Shalygina
Located in Maricopa, AZ
A rare opportunity to own a very unique and special painting by the late Svetlana Shalygina. This piece is titled "Straightforward" and it sure makes a statement from every angle. It...
Category

2010s Abstract Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic

Stanley Boxer Mixed Media Abstract Expressionist Painting on Paper, Gold
By Stanley Boxer
Located in Surfside, FL
Abstract, 1987 Hand signed and dated verso Not sure of technique. this might be a monotype or monoprint with hand painting. The handmade paper is cut somewhat irregularly as per the ...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Acrylic, Gouache, Archival Paper

Mixed Media Painting Titled: "Where is my princess?"
By Fern Samuels
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Fern Samuels received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois, and her Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art institute of Chicago. She r...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Plastic, Acrylic, Archival Paper

Contemporary Minimalist Textured Black & White diptych, Franz Kline inspired
By Svetlana Shalygina
Located in Maricopa, AZ
Artist : Svetlana Shalygina, "The Elegance of Simplicity" Original black & white textured diptych. Large scale, uniquely textured Contemporary paintings, with 2.5" gallery wrap edg...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Black
By Enrico Benetta
Located in Miami, FL
"Black" is a painting created by Enrico Benetta in 2012. The artwork is the first of a series of monochromatic square canvasses created each in one of the primary colors. The paintin...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Gesso, Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Black
Black
$11,520 Sale Price
20% Off
H 47 in W 47 in D 4 in
Untitled
By Michael Goldberg
Located in Austin, TX
Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work: Oil, pastel, and paper collage on canvas. Signed and dated verso. 52.75 x 47.75 in. 54 x 49 in. (framed) Gilded floater frame. Provenance Compass Rose, Chicago Born Sylvan Irwin Goldberg in 1924 and raised in the Bronx, Michael Goldberg was an important figure in American Abstract Expressionism, who began taking art classes at the Art Students League in 1938. A gifted student, Goldberg finished high school at the age of 14 and enrolled in City College. He soon found New York’s jazz scene to be a more compelling environment, and he began skipping classes in favor of the Harlem jazz clubs near campus. Goldberg’s love of jazz would become a lifelong passion and a key component to his approach to composition in his paintings. From 1940 to 1942, like many of the leading artists of the New York School, Goldberg studied with Hans Hofmann. In 1943, he put his pursuit of painting on hold and enlisted in the U.S. Army. Serving in North Africa, Burma, and India, Goldberg received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star before being discharged in 1946. After his service, he traveled and worked in Venezuela before returning to the United States, settling back in New York and resuming studies with Hofmann and at the Art Students League. Living downtown and frequenting the Cedar Bar, Goldberg befriended many of the artists of the New York School. In 1951, his work was included in the groundbreaking Ninth Street Show, co-organized by Leo Castelli, Conrad Marca-Relli, and the Eighth Street Club, and featuring the work of - among others - Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline. In 1953, the Tibor de Nagy...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Canvas, Pastel, Mixed Media, Oil, Handmade Paper

Untitled
Untitled
$65,000
H 52.75 in W 47.75 in
Untitled-059 mixed media on paper by John Von Wicht
By John von Wicht
Located in Hudson, NY
This abstract artwork is one of a group of over 100 pieces personally selected by the artist, and gifted to a close personal friend in 1969. Please note that this painting was never ...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

Elephant
By Wyona Diskin
Located in Aramits, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Wyona Diskin, American (1915 - 1991) Elephant Acrylic on canvas mixed with collage cut out paper, foam, Signed. Measurements: H 60 x W 50 x D 1.0 inches Wyona Diskin, an American p...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Acrylic, Foam, Paper

Elephant
Elephant
$5,824
H 60.01 in W 50.01 in D 1.19 in
Untitled-005 mixed media on paper by John Von Wicht
By John von Wicht
Located in Hudson, NY
This abstract artwork is one of a group of over 100 pieces personally selected by the artist, and gifted to a close personal friend in 1969. Please note this painting was never matte...
Category

1950s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

Sweet Emotions Mixed Media on Paper
By Malgosia Kiernozycka
Located in Lake Worth Beach, FL
Sweet Emotions Mixed media acrylic, watercolor, ink marker, pastel on archival. Malgosia Kiernozycka was born in Wroclaw, Poland. She graduated high school at the School of Fine Art...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Ink, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Archival Paper, Pastel

Abstract Painting "Free Blue 3331" – Textured Mixed Media Paper 2025
Located in BIELSKO-BIAŁA, PL
„Free Blue 3331" is an abstract mix media painting on paper, measuring 59,5 x 42 cm, by contemporary Polish artist Monika Widenka. A space where emotions take shape before thoughts c...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Emerson Woelffer Mixed Media

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Emerson Woelffer mixed media for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Emerson Woelffer mixed media available for sale on 1stDibs.

Recently Viewed

View All