CHRONOLOGY
1898
Lorser Feitelson is born on February 11 to Russian immigrants. He believed his birthplace to be Savannah, Georgia, although his birth was recorded in New York City.
1898–1912
Grows up in New York. Before age six, he receives his first lessons in figure drawing from his father, whose analytical approach makes a deep and lasting impression. He is exposed to works and reproductions of the masters as well as contemporary art in his father’s extensive library and periodical collection. At age twelve, he begins painting in oils.
1913
Attends the Armory Show in New York, where he is impressed by Cézanne, Duchamp, Matisse, and Gauguin.
Begins to study the work of the Italian Futurist Umberto Boccioni, initiating his own experiments with kinetic organization.
1916
Meets Robert Henri, founder of The Eight.
Rents a studio in Greenwich Village.
1917
Moves to a studio above the Penguin Club on East 15th Street. During these early years, he works alone and educates himself by visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Meets Jules Pascin at the Penguin Club.
1918
Meets Walter Pach, John Sloan, and Arthur B. Davies.
1919
Visited by Gaston Lachaise.
Takes his first trip to Paris and enrolls at the Académie Colarossi as an independent student in life drawing.
During his stay in Paris, notes the exhaustion of Cubism and the revival of classicism.
Marries Nathalie Newking.
1920
Returns to New York and moves into a studio on 14th Street. Sees the work of Constantin Brâncusi, most likely at the Société Anonyme. Is impressed by the early work of Elie Nadelman.
Creates a square for a collaborative wall hanging by the Society of Independent Artists, at the request of John Sloan.
1922
Returns to Paris.
Becomes aware that Picasso, André Derain, Théophile Robert, and others are working in a classical style; critics proclaim Cubism to be dead and Neoclassicism the new mode.
Turns from kinetic organizations toward more formal figure compositions. Travels through Italy and is re-inspired by the early Renaissance masters.
1923
Visits Corsica; his sketches of this island will become the basis for later Neoclassical works of peasant subjects.
1924
Returns to New York, occupying a studio on East 64th Street. Begins exhibiting at the Daniel Gallery and receives critical acclaim for his Neoclassical painting Judgment of Paris.
1925
Feitelson’s premier solo exhibition at the Daniel Gallery in New York.
1926
The Brooklyn Museum acquires Diana at the Bath.
Exhibits at Neumann Gallery in New York.
1926–1927
Returns to Paris and rents a studio on rue de Seine.
Exhibits in the Salon d’Automne. Returns to the United States. Travels to Los Angeles in November for a winter stay and makes it his permanent residence.
1928
Moves to a studio on Highland Avenue, in the heart of Hollywood.
Exhibits with Nathalie Newking at Wilshire Galleries in Los Angeles, directed by an acquaintance of Winslow Homer.
Featured in his premier solo museum exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Featured in a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art.
Meets Stanton Macdonald-Wright.
Featured in a solo exhibition at the Fine Arts Gallery in San Diego.
His daughter Grace is born.
1929
Exhibits at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art with Conrad Buff, Nathalie Newking, and Hanson Puthuff.
Teaches a summer painting course at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles.
1930
Begins to conceptualize Subjective Classicism, to become known as Post-Surrealism.
The Los Angeles Times publishes Feitelson’s article “Eclecticism…What Is It?” on January 26.
Hired as an instructor at the Stickney Memorial School of Fine Arts in Pasadena.
Exhibits in a Neo-Classical show at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Meets art critic and writer Jules Langsner.
Helen Lundeberg, Reuben Kadish, and Philip Goldstein (Philip Guston) are among his students.
1931
Exhibits at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego.
1932
Resides on De Longpre Avenue in Hollywood.
The Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art acquires Two Peasant Children.
Exhibits at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
His daughter Caroline is born.
1933
Resides on Fountain Avenue in Hollywood.
Exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.
1933–1934
Stanley Rose and Murray Youlin open the first contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles at the Centaur bookshop on Selma Avenue near Vine Street in Hollywood. Feitelson directs and designs the gallery.
1934
Feitelson founds Subjective Classicism, also known as Post-Surrealism, with Lundeberg.
The first Post-Surrealist exhibition is held at the Centaur Gallery in Hollywood in November, including works by Feitelson, Lundeberg, Lucien Labaudt, Knud Merrild, Etienne Ret, and Harold Lehman.
Creates murals for the Public Works of Art Project.
1935
Designs and directs the new Stanley Rose Gallery, organizing exhibits for Juan Gris, Carlos Mérida, the Post-Surrealists, Lundeberg, Kadish, Merrild, and Goldstein (Guston). Leaves the Rose Gallery to direct the Hollywood Gallery of Modern Art, located across from the Egyptian Theatre.
Along with Alexander Archipenko, juries a Modern Art Show.
Included in a Post-Surrealist show at the San Francisco Museum of Art, which travels to the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
1936
Included in a critically acclaimed Post-Surrealist exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.
Exhibits in Fantastic Art Dada Surrealism, a show held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York through 1937.
1936–1937
Begins work on the Los Angeles County Hall of Records mural for the Federal Art Project, a division of the Works Progress Administration.
1937
Moves to a studio on Western Avenue just north of Melrose, where he will remain for ten years.
Appointed supervisor of murals, paintings, and sculpture for the Federal Art Project in Los Angeles County.
Exhibits in the School of Paris show at Stendahl Galleries in Los Angeles.
Exhibits at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in the Exhibition of Contemporary American Art.
1938
Two Feitelson murals are shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art. Three more murals are completed for Thomas A. Edison Junior High School.
1939
One of his figurative lithographs is included in the New York World’s Fair.
Begins directing exhibitions with Helen Wurdemann at the Los Angeles Art Association Galleries.
His lithograph Post-Surrealist Configuration: Biological Symphony is exhibited at the Whitney Annual in New York.
Completes two murals for the Hooper Avenue School in Los Angeles.
1942
The United States enters World War II; the Federal Art Project begins to limit operations.
Begins Romantic Paintings of an introspective, subjective nature.
1943
The Federal Art Project officially ends.
1944
Begins teaching at the Art Center School in Los Angeles.
Featured in a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art.
Featured in a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art, including his Romantic Paintings and his first abstract paintings, Post-Surrealist Configurations, later to be called Magical Space Forms.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts includes Feitelson in its Fourth Biennial Exhibit of Contemporary American Painting.
1945
Incorporates principles of abstraction in his courses at the Art Center School.
1947
Becomes director of the Gallery of Mid-Twentieth Century Art on Clark Street in Los Angeles.
Exhibits at the Art Institute of Chicago in the show Abstract and Surrealist American Art.
Exhibits at the Pasadena Institute of Art in the show Eighteen California Artists.
Moves to Clark Street in Los Angeles.
Organizes exhibits at the Gallery of Mid-Twentieth Century Art for such artists as Giorgio de Chirico, Leonor Fini, Eugene Berman, Lundeberg, Stanislao Lepri, Victor Brauner, Jacques Herold, and Roberto Matta.
1948
Organizes a Stanton Macdonald-Wright exhibition at the Art Center School Galleries. Paints Untitled, Magical Space Forms, exploring for the first time the ambiguity of space/form; this becomes the predecessor of Hard-Edge abstraction.
Moves to Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles.
1949
Exhibits and lectures widely in Southern California and San Francisco.
Moves to a studio on Ardmore Avenue in Los Angeles.
Exhibits in A Selected Group of Paintings by Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg, held at the Art Center School Galleries in Los Angeles.
1950
Exhibits at the University of Illinois and in Los Angeles.
Creates several small paintings in which he uses the bisected format and manipulation of space within the frame. These works presage his Dichotomic Organizations of the late 1950s through the 1960s.
1951
Named the Carnegie Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
Exhibits Magical Space Forms (1951) at the Los Angeles Art Association Galleries, bridging his Magical Forms and Magical Space Forms series.
Exhibits in Contemporary Painting in the United States, held at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art.
Juries several exhibitions in Southern California.
For the first time, uses plain, primed canvas in a painting.
Serves as a juror and is included in the exhibition American Watercolors, Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In September, moves to a studio and home on Third Street in Los Angeles, where he will remain for the rest of his life.
1952
His retrospective exhibition at the Pasadena Art Institute is a critical success.
The Functionists West group exhibits for the first time at the Los Angeles Art Association Galleries, featuring originators Feitelson, Lundeberg, Elise Cavanna, and Stephen Longstreet.
1953
Exhibits at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.
Included in the second exhibit of the Functionists West group, with fourteen new members.
Completes a Stripe painting, which derives from ideas taught to his students at the Art Center School, using color and spacing to create visual activity.
1955
Featured in a thirty-year retrospective at the Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
Exhibits in the Whitney Annual in New York.
Exhibits in the III Bienal de São Paulo, held at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil, then shown at the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
1956
Begins a successful television series for the local NBC affiliate, entitled Feitelson on Art; it lasts through 1963.
Marries Lundeberg on October 22.
1958
Exhibits at the University of Nebraska Art Galleries in Lincoln.
Exhibits with Lundeberg at Scripps College in Claremont, California.
Participates in the Black and White Exhibition, curated by Jules Langsner in Los Angeles.
1959
Organizes and leads a meeting of the Abstract Classicists, including Karl Benjamin, Frederick Hammersley, and John McLaughlin, with the critic Jules Langsner.
The landmark exhibition Four Abstract Classicists is held at the San Francisco Museum. Organized by Jules Langsner, this show travels to the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art. Later, a revised version, under the title West Coast Hard-Edge, travels to London’s Institute of Contemporary Art and Queen’s University Belfast.
Exhibits in 50 Paintings by 37 Painters of the Los Angeles Area, held at the UCLA Art Galleries and curated by Henry Hopkins.
Begins to exhibit at the Paul Rivas Gallery in Los Angeles with the Anna Mahler/Lorser Feitelson exhibition.
Uses masking tape for the first time to create sharp edges in his paintings.
1960–1961
Exhibits at the Paul Rivas Gallery.
1961
Exhibits in Auckland, New Zealand.
1962
Exhibits in the show Geometric Abstraction in America, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Featured in a solo exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art.
Introduces curvilinear forms, which remain the prominent motif in his future work.
Joins the Ankrum Gallery in Los Angeles.
Exhibits in Fifty California Artists, shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the exhibit travels to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, and the Des Moines Art Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The show is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Art with assistance from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
1963
The Museum of Modern Art in New York acquires and exhibits Feitelson’s painting Magical Space Forms (1955).
Begins line paintings; by 1965, line become the major pictorial element in his works.
Exhibits at the Chapman College Purcell Art Association in Orange, California.
1964
Exhibits at the Phoenix Art Museum.
Begins to exhibit at Ankrum Gallery in Los Angeles.
1965
Exhibits in The Responsive Eye, a landmark exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Exhibits at the Whitney Annual in New York through January 1966.
1966
Exhibits Untitled (1964) in the Recent Acquisitions show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
1967
Exhibits at Occidental College in Los Angeles with Harold Gebhardt.
1968
Joins the David Stuart Galleries in Los Angeles.
Featured in Feitelson: The Years of Vision, 1920–1950, an exhibition at the Los Angeles Art Association Galleries.
1969–1971
Awarded an honorary degree of doctor of fine arts from Art Center College of Design.
Exhibits at the American Embassy in Moscow in the American Contemporary Art show, organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
1971
Feitelson’s daughter Grace dies.
1972
Lorser Feitelson: A Retrospective Exhibition is presented at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in August.
Named chairman emeritus of the Fine Arts Department, Art Center College of Design.
Featured in Lundeberg, Feitelson, First Showing: A Series of New Color Prints, held at the Los Angeles Art Association Galleries.
1973
Honored as a Distinguished American Artist by the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.
1974
Included in Nine Senior Southern California Painters, the inaugural exhibition of the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art.
1976
Exhibits in Painting and Sculpture in California: The Modern Era, held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The Oakland Museum acquires Feitelson’s line painting Untitled (1969).
1977
Exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Exhibits at the National Collection of Fine Arts at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
David Stuart Galleries presents Selection of Small Paintings, a solo exhibition of Feitelson’s early works.
1978
On May 24, dies of heart failure following illness.
Lorser Feitelson, 1898–1978: A Memorial Tribute is held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
The Frederick Weisman Collection of California Art, a show organized at California State University, Long Beach, travels to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Albuquerque Museum of Art.
1980
Featured in Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg: A Retrospective Exhibition, held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., acquires Genesis: Second Version.
1981
Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg: A Retrospective Exhibition travels to UCLA’s Frederick S. Wight Gallery.
Exhibited in a Four Abstract Classicists show at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
1983
Featured in the solo exhibition Lorser Feitelson, 1898–1978: Early Drawings and Late Paintings, held at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
1987
Featured in the solo exhibition Lorser Feitelson, 1898–1978: Magical Space Forms Boulder Series, held at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
1988
Featured in the solo exhibition Lorser Feitelson 1898–1978, held at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
1989
Featured in a group show, Lorser Feitelson: Artist/Teacher, held at the Fine Arts Gallery at Long Beach City College, as well as The Kinetic Line: Lorser Feitelson, held at the Art Gallery at the University of California, Riverside.
1990
Featured in a solo exhibition, Lorser Feitelson: Exploration of The Figure, 1919–1929, at the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, Monterey, California.
1990–1992
Exhibited in the group show Turning the Tide, Early California Modernists 1920–1956, which travels to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, California; the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California; the Oakland Museum; the Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute in San Antonio, Texas; the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University in Logan, Utah; and the Palm Springs Desert Museum in Palm Springs, California.
1992
Featured in the solo exhibition Lorser Feitelson, Motion as Line: Works of 1919 to 1977, shown at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
1994
Featured in Lorser Feitelson/John McLaughlin: Abstract Classicists, shown at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
Exhibited in the group show Independent Visions: California Modernism 1940–1970, held at the Long Beach Museum of Art.
1995
Featured in the group show Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art, 1934–1957, held at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center; the Oakland Museum; and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
1996
Featured in Lorser Feitelson: The Romantic Years, a solo exhibition at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
1998
Featured in Lorser Feitelson: Magical Forms to Hard Edge, a solo exhibition at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
2000
Featured in Four Abstract Classicists Plus One, an exhibition at the Tobey C. Moss Gallery.
2001
Featured in the American Surrealism exhibition at the Thomas McCormick Gallery in Chicago.
Featured in the Four Abstract Classicists exhibition at Gary Snyder Fine Art in New York.
Featured in Lorser Feitelson, 1898–1978, held at the Patricia Faure Gallery in Los Angeles.
Exhibited at the Chapman College Purcell Art Association in Orange, California.
2002
Included in the Post Surrealism exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
2003
Featured in Lorser Feitelson and the Invention of Hard Edge Painting, 1945–1965, a solo exhibition at Louis Stern Fine Arts in Los Angeles.
2004
Featured in The Los Angeles School, an exhibition at the Otis College of Art and Design’s Ben Maltz Gallery in Los Angeles.
2005
Featured in Lorser Feitelson: The Kinetic Series—Works from 1916–1923, a solo exhibition at Louis Stern Fine Arts.
2006
Featured in Masters, Mentors, and Metamorphosis, an exhibition at Fullerton College in Fullerton, California.
Featured in Lorser Feitelson: 10 Paintings, Los Angeles, the 1960s, a solo exhibition at Washburn Gallery in New York.
2007–2009
Featured in The Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, which travels to the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California; the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri; the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin; the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts; and the Oakland Museum of California.
2008
Featured in A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, an exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.
2009
Featured in Lorser Feitelson: The Late Paintings, a solo exhibition at Louis Stern Fine Arts.
Featured in Circa 1958: Breaking Ground in American Art, held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
2010
Featured in Happy Birthday Mr. Blum!, an exhibition at Louis Stern Fine Arts.
Featured in Until Now: Collecting the New, an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts.
2011
Featured in Kindred Vision: Lorser Feitelson/Helen Lundeberg, an exhibition at Louis Stern Fine Arts.
Featured in three exhibitions connected to the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950–1970, held at the Getty Center; Artistic Evolution, 1945–1963, held at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; and The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Tower Arts Center, held at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.
2012
Featured in Pacific Standard Time: Art in Los Angeles 1950–1980, an exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin.