NEW YORK, NY.- Opening July 14 at Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation 'Two Views of Abstract Expressionism: Seymour Boardman (1921-2005) and Ernest Briggs (1923-1984)' these masters together display an appreciation to the many subtleties of abstract expressionism. Seymour Boardman and Ernest Briggs explored contrasting expressions of abstraction, both vigorous and dynamic, yet while the former demonstrated cool and controlled forms, the other spoke a more forceful and fiery language of a raw and cataclysmic nature.

Seymour Boardman spent his formative years in New York and Paris before and after WWII. His style developed alongside fellow influential artists such as Sam Francis, Larry Calcagno, John Hultberg, and Frank Lobdell. Exhibiting in solo and group shows from the 1950s until his death in 2005, Boardman's paintings can be found in national and international collections.

Boardman's paintings are marked by an apparent underlying grid, heavily influenced by his time in Europe. His work would mature and evolve into an almost jazz-like improvisational musical score of lines moving across canvas, setting the stage for an orchestra of linear motifs.

Contrary to the cool intellectual and European influence of Seymour Boardman's oeuvre, Ernest Briggs followed a more radical aesthetic that grew from the environment at the California School of Fine Art. There he studied with Douglas MacAgy, Clifford Still, Mark Rothko, and Ad Reinhardt. Upon Still's suggestion, Briggs moved to New York in the 1950s and was immediately accepted as a member of the New York avant-garde.

Briggs would continue to create works exploring a beastly-like vision where the paint wildly comes alive with a forceful and energetic strength, juxtaposing luminous atmosphere with rhythmic, strong brushstrokes.

Briggs taught at the University of Florida, at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn for over 20 years and briefly at Yale University. His paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions since the 1940s. His works are held in The Whitney Museum in New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., The San Francisco Museum of Art, and The Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, PA.

Ernest Briggs: Selected Collections

A.S. Art Foundation, Jim Thorpe, PA
Bliar Collection of Bay Area Abstract Expressionism, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn,
NY Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Ciba-Geigy Corporation, Ardsley, NY
Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC
Housatonic Community College, CT
Jan Verhoeven Collection, Stichting Yellow Fellow,
Woudrichem, Netherlands
Michigan State University, East Lansing, NU
Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA
Portland Museum of Maine
Rockefeller Institute, NY
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
San Jose Museum, San Jose, CA
The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
Foundation Gandur pour l'Art, Geneva, Switzerland

Seymour Boardman: Selected Collections

A.S. Art Foundation, Jim Thorpe, PA
Anderson Gallery, University of Buffalo, NY
Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
Bocour, Artists Materials Collection, NY
Ciba-Geigy Corporation, Ardsley, NY
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico
New York University, NY
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY
St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY
The Joe and Emily Lowe Foundation
The State University of New York, College At Postdam,NY
Union Carbide Corporation, NY
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Westmoreland County Museum, Greensburgh, PA
Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
Jan Verhoeven Collection, Woudrichem, Netherlands

Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation
'Two Views of Abstract Expressionism: Seymour Boardman (1921-2005) and Ernest Briggs (1923-1984)'
July 14th, 2023 - September 8th, 2023