Henry Botkin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Henry Albert Botkin 1896 |
| Died | 1983 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Massachusetts College of Art,Art Students League of New York |
| Known for | Painting,Collage |
| Movement | American Modernism |
| Patron(s) | George Gershwin,Ira Gershwin |
Henry Botkin (1896-1983) was born inBoston, Massachusetts, and was a mid-centuryAmerican Modernist who served as President of theFederation of Modern Painters and Sculptors from 1957 to 1961. He was an illustrator forThe Saturday Evening Post,Harpers, andThe Century Magazine.[1][2] Botkin was a cousin and close friend to composers,George Gershwin andIra Gershwin.
After training at theMassachusetts College of Art, Botkin moved toNew York City. He took classes in drawing and illustration at theArt Students League of New York and worked as an illustrator for Harper’s, The Saturday Evening Post and Century magazines. In the late 1930s Botkin changed his approach to painting, moving from theSchool of Paris Modernism that he had adopted after he left Boston.[3] Botkin was known for painting the theater, still lifes, landscapes, and low-country blacks in a romantic manner that some criticized for lacking social realism. By the late 1940s he had turned to abstraction in oils and collage.[1] He grew an interest in collage in the early 1950s, which dominated his work until the 1960s.[2] He served as president of four major art organizations including: The Artists Equity Association, TheAmerican Abstract Artists, Group 256 Provincetown, and The Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.[4] Botkin helped to organize the first exhibition of American abstract painting at theNational Museum of Modern Art, TokyoJapan, in 1955. He also organized the sale of five hundred and forty paintings at theWhitney Museum of American Art in New York, 1959. Botkin spoke on the radio, “TheVoice of America,” television, led panel discussions throughout the country, and lectured and taught privately inNew York,California, andProvincetown, Massachusetts.
Botkin was a cousin, close friend, and painting teacher to Gershwin. Gershwin collected many of Botkin's paintings, which people said corresponded in mood to Gershwin's music. Martha Severens wrote in her book, The Charleston Renaissance, "The interaction between the two cousins was a dynamic one, and Botkin created paintings that reflect Gershwin's music. Correspondences are found in subject and in style. Both had a genuine interest inAfrican-American culture that preceded their visit toFolly Beach and the evolution ofPorgy and Bess. . . .They talked art together and spent years of their lives together."[5] Botkin encouraged Gershwin to paint, and after Gershwin’s death, he arranged an exhibition of his cousin's work atAvery Fisher Hall.[6]
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