Description:

Balcomb (John Wesley) Greene
New York, New Hampshire / France, (1904-1990)
Untitled (38.32), 1938
collage
signed in pencil lower center.
Exhibited: Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, NY.

Biography from Southport Galleries:
Balcomb Greene, christened John Wesley Greene, was born in Milleville, New York in 1904. His childhood was spent in small towns across the Midwest, where he had little exposure to the world of art. Greene's initial intention was to become a preacher like his father, and in 1922 he entered Syracuse University to study religion. While at Syracuse, he realized that he was more interested in the liberal arts and eventually changed his course of study from religion to philosophy.

In 1926, shortly before graduating from Syracuse, Greene met and married the sculptor and painter Gertrude Glass. In 1931, after teaching at the University of Vienna in Austria, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and receiving a Masters in English Literature at Columbia, Greene and his wife moved to Paris to experience the art scene abroad.

While in Paris, Greene became familiar with the contemporary European art world, especially Cubism and Neo-Plasticism, and eventually decided to become a painter himself. Greene's early style was completely non-objective and heavily influenced by the geometric abstraction of painters Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, and especially, Piet Mondrian.

When he returned to the United States Greene continued to develop his own abstract style, which he referred to as "straight line, flat paintings." He began to make collages of cut colored paper to create the flattened compositions he desired. In 1937, he helped found the Abstract American Artists and became its first chairman.

In 1942, Greene abandoned abstraction, a genre which he believed was limited and sterile, in favor of figuration, atmospheric light and natural space. This was a bold refusal to conform to the mainstream world of abstract art, a world that he was very influential in forming. Using an expressionistic brushstroke and a nearly monochromatic palate of soft grays, blacks and whites, Greene painted nudes against a fragmented landscape.

In 1947 Greene moved to Montauk Point, New York, where was inspired by the dynamism of the sea and painted many energetic seascapes and maritime scenes.

Greene lived the rest of his life in Montauk and died there in 1990 at the age of 86. His work is found in prominent museums across the United States and his influence on American art is significant.

  • Dimensions: 7 3/4"H x 12"W(paper), 15 1/2"H x 19 3/4"W(frame)
  • Medium: collage

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April 26, 2025 11:00 AM EDT
Indianapolis, IN, US

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