Manfred Schwartz

Manfred Schwartz (Łódź, Poland, November 11, 1909 - New York, 1970) was a Polish-American artist who was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, the Art Students League of New York, and the National Academy of Design in New York. He also studied with Charles Hawthorne, John Sloan, and George Bridgemen.

“It takes so long to become one’s self”.^{[citation needed]} This was one of the last things Manfred Schwartz said to his son Paul Waldo Schwartz. Schwartz created a sensational body of work: oils, pastels, and lithographs; we can see his evolution within three major periods that span fifty years of work.^{[citation needed]}

His earliest paintings were portraits and still lifes. The colors were deep and muted, he preferred the umbers to the yellows. By 1940 he began to paint in a more abstract manner. His colors intensified and his images seemed ahead of their time. In the mid 1950’s Schwartz began to create a series of limited edition, hand pulled, stone lithographs at the Mourlot Studios in Paris.

Schwartz is widely regarded as one of the great academic painters of this era. Born in Poland in 1909, he went to America when his father, a master engraver to European royalty, was taken to New York by the Colgate-Palmolive company. As a young man, Schwartz returned to Paris to study before the Nazi invasion. It was in Paris that Schwartz met the great masters of the 20th century, Braque, Rouault, Picasso, and Matisse.

An accomplished musician (cello and piano), gifted writer, a magnificent conversationalist, of a high cultural level, and accomplished chess player, Schwartz fit in well with this circle of artists.

Matisse advised Schwartz to go to Etretat, France for the light and inspiration. His time spend in Etretat was the beginning of a wondrous body of work created by Schwartz which was touted in the art world, purchased and exhibited by major art museums in New York City.

Among the inner circle of artists was Duchamp and Matta. Many of the influences by these great artists were absorbed and at a later date, perhaps as his subconscious influenced a series of paintings however without interfering with his occupation of color and light.

In 1960 while working on the Ring series which definitely denotes Matissian influence, and beginning the Etretat series, Schwartz painted a small series called Knights. The very realistic European figure of his earlier Parisian training had begun to evolve and disintegrate in the 1950s with the Acrobat series. of From 1960 to 1964 Manfred Schwartz created a body of work with included a series of knights in armor; the forms separated into many forms with geometric shapes and lines defining the blocks of colors.

As one looks at these almost abstractions one is reminded of Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase and its power in creating movement. The cluster of knights in each painting have the same feeling of movement. They are classic knights in armor but thoroughly modern in composition and form. It is an intellectual game on canvas. One can imagine Schwartz sitting in the park of the Palace du Luxembourg playing a game of chess and the image forming in his mind. These are the last works to contain the figures and have been exhibited since the artists untimely death in 1970. At the time of his death, he was under contract to the renowned Knoedler Gallery in New York City, and two posthumous exhibits were held. The Rhode Island School of Design and the Whitney Museum both gave retrospective exhibitions.

Permanent collections

• Brooklyn Museum, New York
• Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
• The Museum of Modern Art, NY
• New School for Social Research Art Center, NY
• New York Public Library, NY
• The Newark Museum, New Jersey
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY
• University of Minnesota University Gallery, Minnesota
• Whitney Museum, NY

Selected solo exhibitions

• Lilienfeld, NY: 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943
• Durand Ruel, Paris: 1946, 1947, 1949
• Otto Gerson, NY: 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958
• Albert Landry, NY: 1962, 1963
• New School, NY: 1964
• Wientraub Gallery, NY: 1984
• Modern Art Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida: 1996

Retrospectives

• The Brooklyn Museum, NY: 1961
• The Whitney Museum, NY: 1971
• The Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Rhode Island: 1974
• Knoedler Gallery, NY: 1974, 1978

Selected group exhibitions

• World Art Gallery, Ladera Ranch, California
• Albright-Know Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
• Musee' Cantini, Marseille, France
• National Academy Gallery, New York, NY
• Skowhegan, ME
• Brooklyn Museum, NY
• Fine Art Associates, NY
• Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio
• Milwaukee Art Center, Wsiconson
• Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
• Durand Ruel Gallery, Paris, France
• Carnegie Institute, Washington, DC
• Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, NY
• Wadsworth Antheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
• The St. Paul Art Gallery, Minneapolis
• Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
• M. Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA
• Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA

Bibliography

• New York Times, Art Critic John Canaday, 1962
• New York Times, November 1970
• New York Times, Hilton Kramer, 1971
• New York Times, Peter Schjeldahl, September 1971
• New York Times, Hilton Kramer, April 1974
• The New Yorker Magazine
• Arts Magazine, January 1985
• Architectural Digest, November 1987
• Art & Antiques Magazine, November 1988

Persondata
Name	Schwartz, Manfred
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 11, 1909
Place of birth	Łódź, Poland
Date of death	1970
Place of death	New York, New York