Jules Olitski (March 27, 1922 – February 4, 2007) was an American abstract painter, printmaker, and sculptor.
Olitski was born Jevel Demikovski in Snovsk, in the Russian SFSR (now Schors, Ukraine), a few months after his father, a commissar, was executed by the Russian government. He emigrated to the United States in 1923 with his mother and grandmother and settled in Brooklyn. His grandmother cared for him while his mother worked to support the ...
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Jules Olitski (March 27, 1922 – February 4, 2007) was an American abstract painter, printmaker, and sculptor.
Olitski was born Jevel Demikovski in Snovsk, in the Russian SFSR (now Schors, Ukraine), a few months after his father, a commissar, was executed by the Russian government. He emigrated to the United States in 1923 with his mother and grandmother and settled in Brooklyn. His grandmother cared for him while his mother worked to support the family. In 1926 his mother married Hyman Olitsky (note "y" ending), a widower with two sons. A daughter was born in 1930.
Olitski showed an aptitude for drawing and by 1935 was taking occasional art classes in Manhattan. He attended public schools in New York, winning an art prize upon his graduation from high school. At an exhibit of the work of some of the great masters at the New York World's Fair in 1939 he was very impressed by Rembrandt's portraits. Subsequently he won a scholarship to study art at Pratt Institute and was admitted to the...
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