By Janet Todd Young
Located in Colfax, CA
A rare work of art by an female modernist artist from the 1930s, by Janet Todd Young.
Janet Todd Young is a very interesting artist.
She was born in Illinois in 1908, and earned a bachelor's degree in languages from Oberlin College, specializing in French, Italian and German. After graduating, Janet travelled to Europe to put her language skills to use, working for her father.
While living in Berlin in the early 1930s she met and married Beckford Young, an American artist from Petaluma, California who had recently been working with Hans Hofmann at UC Berkeley.
Hofmann, widely considered to be one of the most influential abstract artists of the time, was returning to Germany and convinced Beckford to travel with him so the two could be closer the the cutting edge of emerging modern art in Europe.
Through Beckford and Hofmann, Janet, a midwesterner, and the daughter of a congregational minister, was introduced to cutting edge ideas in the modern art world.
Soon after their marriage, Janet and Beckford travelled to Positano, Italy where Vaclav Vytlacil, a leading modern American artist, was teaching at an art colony.
In 1937, the unrest in Europe forced the Youngs to leave Europe for California.
While living in California, Janet exhibited her work in New York City with the American Abstract Artists, which had been recently created by leading American abstract artists with the sole purpose of exposing the American public to American abstract art.
In California Janet exhibited her work at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1938, the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939, and with the San Francisco Art Association in 1956.
Janet, who had already been making and exhibiting Russian constructivist inspired constructions, was introduced to furniture making by her husband, and made constructivist furniture...
Category
1930s Abstract Janet Todd Young Art