Lot 122
Helen Gerardia
New York / Russian Federation, (1903 - 1988)
Red Star
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right, titled verso.
Rudolph Gallery, NY/FL label verso.
Biography from the Archives of askART: The following information was submitted by Bob Gamse, whose source, with permission, is a document supplied to him by Arts and Industry, a New York Art Gallery, which handled much of the work of the artist's estate.
Helen Gerardia was born in Ekaterinislav, Russia, in 1913, and emigrated to the U.S. sometime in the first or second quarter of the twentieth century. She was a first grade teacher in the New York public schools who turned to art as a second vocation, and achieved exceptional success. She began her study of art at the Art Students League in 1947. She was awarded a two-year scholarship at the Nahum Tschacbasov workshop, and continued her studies with Hans Hofmann at the Hofmann School and Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Gerardia won a watercolor prize at the Village Art Center and had a watercolor show there. By 1951, she received a prize for a work in oil that resulted in an exhibition in this medium at the Center and soon became known for her hard- edged abstraction graphics. Later that year, she participated in her first exhibition held at the 8th Street Playhouse. Following her first exhibition, Gerardia participated in 125 one-man shows, and was collected by 42 major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which purchased 8 of her graphics in 1963.
Her traveling shows of paintings and graphics were shown in over 150 museums, colleges and art centers in all 50 states. Her works were circulated by the American Foreign Cultural Service, and the Western Association of Museums. She exhibited in 17 countries abroad, and at numerous institutions, including the Stedlijke Museum in Brussels, The Ueno Park Museum in Tokyo, the New Delhi Cultural Center in India, the Pierre Borde Museum in Algiers, the Modem Museum of Art in Brazil and in Canada. She was included in group shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran, the Smithsonian Institute, National Gallery, Jewish Museum, Pennsylvania Academy, Boston Museum, and the San Francisco Museum.
Gerardia received 42 awards for her paintings and graphics including the Medal of Honor for graphics from the National Association of Women Artists in 1961 and 1964. She made exclusive editions of prints for the Society of American Graphic Artists and Contemporaries. She gave demonstrations at the Norfolk Museum and the Audubon Artists and the National Association of Women Artists. She served as President of the American Society of Contemporary Arts, was an officer for Artists Equity of New York, and served as Vice President of the Society of Painters in Casein. She was a delegate to the U.S. Committee of the International Association of Art and has been Official Observer to the third and fourth Congresses in New York and Tokyo.
Gerardia was represented by the Bodley Gallery (787 Madison Avenue, New York, NY) at the peak of her career in the 1950s. Owned and operated by David Manh, Bodley is best known for their early (1950s) exhibitions of Andy Warhol.
ARTIST STATEMENT (1959)
"I have always been interested in the play of light and its effect on form and color. Another quality of light, the prismatic breaking up of color, has always fascinated me. I felt that by placing my color in broken areas I could, in a way, approximate the movement of atmosphere and the divisibility of color."
"I have devoted over ten years of research and work to this field of painting. At first I worked in small areas using many nuances of the same color and achieved what one critic called 'a luminous and unfolding effect'. At this point in my development I feel the need for a broader statement because now my aim in painting is to use this technique which I have developed for the expression of contemporary subjects such as buildings, bridges, and the broad new horizons of outer space."
"To me the education of an artist seems to be the cultivation and intensification of the individual differences inherent in the creative individual. Drawing, composition, design, history, literature, philosophy and mathematics is all grist for the creative mill, and are the treasure upon which the artist draws for inspiration. A visual image or an emotional experience may set off a new endeavor, however, the greater the treasure, the greater will be the imagination of the creative artist and the greater will be the number of facets his work will show."
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Dimensions:
- 23 3/4"H x 19 3/4"W, 24 7/8"H x 20 3/4"W (frame) Artist Name:
- Helen Gerardia Medium:
- Oil on canvas
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