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
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
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Please allow up to four weeks for your request to be reviewed. Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.