Jack Youngerman

Over his long career, Jack Youngerman has created an extensive body of work in geometric abstraction characterized by hard lines, strong contrasts, and bright primary and secondary colors. Born in 1926 in Saint Louis, Youngerman went to Paris at the age of 21 on a G.I. scholarship and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In Paris, he befriended fellow students César, Ellsworth Kelly, and Eduardo Paolozzi, and visited studios of major artists including Jean Arp and Constantin Brancusi. He also traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East during this time and was influenced by the art and culture around him. His work took on elements of hard-edge, geometric abstraction and Constructivism.

Youngerman lived in Paris for ten years before moving to New York where he continued to develop his style of simplified organic forms in geometric abstraction. His paintings were included in the show 16 Americans at the Museum of Modern Art alongside work by Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, and Frank Stella. In the late '70s, he began exploring sculpture, working in fiberglass and aluminum, and in recent years has expanded to woodworking.

Since his first solo show at the Galerie Arnaud in Paris in 1951, Youngerman has had important exhibitions at institutions including the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, Helandn Wetterling Gallery in Stockhold, and a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum.