Winterscape
1955
Emerson Woelffer (American, 1914-2003)
Not on View

Teaching generations of young Southern California artists through his positions at Chouinard and Otis Art Institute, Chicago-born Emerson Woelffer is often considered the grandfather of Los Angeles modernism. His career as an abstract artist began under the tutelage of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the Bauhaus-inspired Institute of Design in his home town, where he experimented with bright color and whimsical line in a style he designated as Abstract Surrealist. Before settling in Southern California in 1959, in 1950 Woelffer was invited to teach at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, where he established lifelong friendships with Ynez Johnston and Robert Motherwell, among others. It was during his last year in Colorado that he painted Winterscape, one of a series of abstract works responding to Colorado’s winters and incorporating a newfound interest in automatic writing and abstract communication.

Details

  • Artist Name: Emerson Woelffer (American, 1914-2003)
  • Title: Winterscape
  • Date: 1955
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 34-1/8 x 22 in. (86.7 x 55.9 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold P. Ullman
  • Accession Number: P.1959.20.1
  • Copyright: © Estate of Emerson Woelffer

Object Information

Mr. and Mrs. Harold P. Ullman, Los Angeles, gift 1959 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1959-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, 1975.

Emerson Woelffer: a Survey Exhibition - the Years 1947-1974

  • Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1974-04-26 to 1974-06-09
  • Washington, D.C. The Phillips Collection, 1974-06-22 to 1974-07-28

Fifteen Profiles: Distinguished California Modernists

  • Fresno Art Museum, 1995-11-07 to 1996-02-07

Emerson Woelffer: A Solo Flight

  • Los Angeles, Gallery at REDCAT, 2003-11-16 to 2003-12-28

A Salute to the Ferus Gallery

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1993-09-23 to 1994-03-20

Alternate Realities: Altoon, Diebenkorn, Lobdell, Woelffer

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2022-05-13 to 2022-08-22
  • Beneke, Daphne Lane, Fifteen Profiles: Distinguished California Modernists, 1995, pp. 27-28
  • CalArts, Emerson Woelffer: A Solo Flight, 2003, no. 14 p. 31

Additional Artwork by Artist

Black and White Emerson Woelffer 1959
Figure Emerson Woelffer 1970
Figure Emerson Woelffer 1969

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