Hugh Mesibov Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Hugh Mesibov is a 20th-century American artist whose work displays key elements of the New York experience including Surrealist, Abstract Expressionist and figurative works across multiple mediums. A recipient of national and international acclaim, Mesibov is included in America’s great collection of contemporary art including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation, the Whitney Museum of Art. A veteran of over 30 one-man shows, Mesibov has exhibited widely his works in watercolor, oil and acrylic as well as etchings, lithographs and monoprints. Born in Philadelphia, Mesibov first studied at the Fleisher Memorial Art School, then at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Barnes Foundation. Mesibov’s work from the late 1930s explores social issues of the day, drawn in a lively and bold style reflecting the modernist works from the Barnes Collection. Yet, early on his horror of war and destruction surfaced in the 1937 work, Bombing of Nanking. In 1940, he had his first one-man show at the Carlin Gallery, Philadelphia. At this time his work became increasingly abstract, initially formal and angular, then eventually surreal. During World War II, while employed at a shipyard, his work echoed the rigors of both shipyard and war. In particular, the painting The Siege, 1943, refers to Stalingrad, in a bizarre and horrific dream-like cityscape. Mesibov moved to New York City in 1945 and began an intensely productive phase of his career. His first New York one-man show was at The Chinese Gallery, 1947, where Milton Avery, Nell Blaine and Ralph Rosenborg also exhibited. There Mesibov’s work became more abstract, but also more painterly and dynamic. As part of the Formations Group, he exhibited at The New School in 1948 and 1949, with friends John Ferron and Boris Margo. Mesibov was a member of The Club when the abstract expressionists converged into a school. He was associated with Franz Kline and Ibram Lassaw in particular, rubbing shoulders with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko. Mesibov had shown at the Morris Gallery, 1955 and Gallery Mayer, 1959. In 1956 and 1958, he exhibited at the Artists Gallery, with his friend Richard Pousette-Dart. During all this time, Mesibov remained loyal to the landscape. Summer visits to Aspen, Colorado, from 1951–54, resulted in a body of work, mostly watercolors, characterized by a perception of space drawn from the vast American West. Visits to Monhegan Island, Maine, in 1956 and 1958 elicited an intensified expressionism. The heightened energy of the Atlantic surf translated into aggressive brush strokes and dramatic color on canvas. During the 60s, Mesibov found himself inspired by literature. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge and Cervante’s Don Quixote each produced a series of more than 30 works. During this time, Mesibov produced some of his largest works on canvas. In 1972, Mesibov produced a mural for the Temple Beth El in Spring Valley, New York, that consisted of three large joined canvases. The mural theme, based on the biblical Book of Job, depicts Job’s challenge to God and ultimately his suffering and redemption.