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Ernest Briggs, Sketch for a Crucifixion, 1981, 69 1/2" x 67 1/2"

Three Decades of Ernest Brig gs’ Abstract Expressionist Paintings

Anita Shapolsky Gallery & Art Foundation / April 17 - July 1, 2012 / New York, New York

http://anitashapolskygallery.com/

A native of San Diego, Briggs studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (1946—47), the first independent art school outside of New York, where Douglas MacAgy brought together a remarkable faculty including Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, David Park and Clyfford Still. Their influence, in particular, that of his mentor and friend, Still’s visionary aspirations, remained with him for life. In the early 1950s Briggs was pulled along with the Californian diaspora to New York. Almost immediately he was given a one-man show at the Stable Gallery. He developed the rugged California aesthetic into sensual, refined and inviting explosions of paint. He was featured in the “Twelve Americans” exhibition in 1956 at the Museum of Modern Art, curated by Dorothy Miller. “The discipline to free one’s image from the conventional aspects without surrendering the affirmative drama of human insight to the sterility of decoration or simple design problems has been, and I believe will be, my continuing direction.” (Ernest Briggs, 1956)

Anita Shapolsky Gallery
152 East 65th Street (patio)
New York, New York

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