| Alfred
Skondovitch, who may be the last surviving member of the "First
Generation" New York School of Abstract Expressionists, lives
and works in Fairbanks, Alaska. Skondovitch has shown with the greatest
artists of our time, including Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline, Richard
Diebenkorn, Jack Tworkov, Esteben Vincente, Kerkam, Milton Resnick,
Nellie Blaine, Leland Bell, Steven Pace, Ms. Heller, and Robert DeNiro,
Sr. Skondovitch was a student of Hans Hofmann, a great artist in his
own right. Between 1953 and 1958 Skondovitch's paintings were shown in the Poindexter Gallery in both New York and Paris. In fact, George Poindexter and Meyer Shapiro sponsored Alfred's re-entry into the United States in the late 50's, as he had been in this country illegally as a British subject. In 1956 Skondovitch was invited to exhibit in one of the most important exhibitions in modern American art history, "TEN AMERICAN PAINTERS" in New York. This showing of paintings produced one of the greatest changes away from the European and French dominance of American art schools. An authentic "American School" of international importance and influence was recognized in this show....ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. Others who exhibited in "Ten American Painters" were De Kooning and Diebenkorn. A few months later Skondovitch exhibited in an important show called "Drawings, Watercolors and Small Oils" by 52 painters at the Poindexter Gallery. These included Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Rauschenberg, Tworkov, Vincente, Franz Kline, Guston and many others. Famed art critic Dore Ashton commented on only a few of the works in the New York Times, but was affected by Skondovitch, noting that he "paints small, moving landscapes. Others represented with equally good work are Willem deKooning, Franz Kline, William Sharf, Dorothy Heller, Michael Goldberg, Sylvai Wald, Wolf Kahn, Felix Pasilis and Joe Stefanelli.". This particular exhibition was funded in part by Nelson Rockefeller, and it was considered a salon de refuse, or a challenge to the policies of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who had refused to acknowledge the Abstract Expressionist movement. |