"Extraordinary pioneer in the Color Field"
- Walter Hopps, Founding Director, Menil Collection, Texas; Senior Curator of 20th Century Art, Guggenheim Museum, New York, Former Director Corcoran Gallery of Art
Hopps, W., Treisman, D., & Doran, A. (2017). The Dream Colony: A Life in Art. Bloomsbury.
Benjamin Abramowitz, 1917-2011
Benjamin Abramowitz was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose works span almost 70 years. First recognized for his contributions at age 19 as senior artist with the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in New York City, he was among the most respected Washington, D.C. artists of the past century.
By the age of 35 his work was featured in 13 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, as well as scores of group shows. His paintings, sculptures and works on paper are, among others, in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, The Phillips Collection, St. Louis Art Museum, Newark Art Museum, Georgetown University, the U.S. Department of State, the District of Columbia Art Bank, the Montgomery County Maryland Art Trust, and the Archives of American Art. Numerous works are in private collections.
Since 2004, his daughter, Susan Abramowitz Rosenbaum, took over the documentation, preservation, and exhibitions of his collection of artworks. In recent years, his work has been featured in four solo exhibitions, in U.S. embassies of the Republic of Congo and Sarajevo, and in a national touring exhibition. His lifework experiences have also been celebrated in a recording on the BBC Radio in 2017.
"Art Movements splintered into a
thousand shards in the decades of the
1940's onward. In its complexities I
created an individual order, a body of
work, of paintings, sculptures, and
drawings, evolving into the next century, inspired by its own inferences."
- Benjamin Abramowitz, 1988
Professional Experience
Select Exhibitions
Solo
1940-2011
Professional Artist
Washington, D.C.
1935-1940
Senior Artist
WPA Federal Art Project
New York City
Teaching Experience
1990-1995
Faculty
The Berkshire School of Contemporary Art
Massachusetts
1960-1970
Instructor
Graduate School of the Department of Agriculture
Washington, D.C.
1965
Artist in Residence, Brownsville Art League
Ford Foundation Awardee
Brownsville, Texas
1951-1960
Founding Instructor
Abramowitz School of Painting
Washington, D.C.
1949-1952
Instructor
Washington Workshop of the Arts
Washington, D.C.
1933-1941
Instructor
New York Community Centers
New York City
2019
Workhouse Arts Center, Lorton, Virginia
2016
Decades, Montgomery College King Street Gallery
Takoma Park, Maryland
2013
Undiscovered Color: The Paintings of Benjamin Abramowitz (1960-1970)
Archer Modern, Washington, D.C.
2012
Out of the Vault, Woman's National Democratic Club, Washington, D.C.
2006
Benjamin Abramowitz Works on Paper, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, D.C.
1982
Benjamin Abramowitz: Painting, Sculpture, Drawing
Middendorf/Lane Downtown Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1971
Benjamin Abramowitz, Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1970
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1965
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1964
Abramowitz, R Street Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1963
Washington Artists Exhibition No. 20: Benjamin Abramowitz
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1959
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
1955
Abramowitz: Paintings and Drawings
Washington Hebrew Congregation, Washington, D.C.
1952
The Whyte Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1951
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1951
The Whyte Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1951
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
1950
The Washington Hebrew Congregation, Washington, D.C.
1950
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
1949
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1949
The DuPont Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1948
Abramowitz Paintings, The Barnett Aden Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1946
Howard University Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Group
2013
Washington Art Matters, 1940's-1980's
American University Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
2008
WPA Graphic Works from the Amity Art Foundation Collection
Juniata College Museum of Art, Huntington, Pennsylvania
2007
From Maryland to the Republic of Congo, Art in Embassies Exhibition
United States Embassy, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
2007
Heart of DC, John A. Wilson Building
City Hall Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
2006
Art in Embassies Program, United States Embassy
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
1989
30 Years Later: A Group Show of Current Works by Selected Washington Artists of the 50's and 60's, Gallery K, Washington, D.C.
1980
Eminent Washington Artists, Washington Project for the Arts
Washington, D.C.
1980
Pioneers of Sculpture, International Sculpture Exhibition, Washington, D.C.
1972
Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1970
Washington: Twenty Years, The Baltimore Museum of Art
1958
3 Maryland Artists: Benjamin Abramowitz, Jane Frank & Lowell Nesbitt
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
1955
Washington Hebrew Congregation, Washington, D.C.
1953
Eighteen Washington Artists, The Barnett Aden Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1953
The Eighth Annual Area Exhibition, The Corcoran Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C.
1953
Trio: One-man Shows by Prominent Washington Artists, Watkins Gallery
American University, Washington, D.C.
1952
Trends in American Drawing, Howard University Department of Fine Art
Washington, D.C.
1952
Maryland Artists 20th Annual Exhibition, The Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore, Maryland
1952
Painters of Expressionistic Abstraction, The Phillips Gallery
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
1948
Third Annual Exhibition of Work by Artists of Washington & Vicinity
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1947
The Barnett Aden Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1947
Fifteenth Annual Exhibition of Maryland Artists, The Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore, Maryland
1946
Artists of Washington and Vicinity, The Corcoran Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C.
1945
The Eighth Metropolitan State Art Contest, The National Collection of Fine Arts
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1945
Exhibition of Paintings by Artists of Washington, Baltimore, and Vicinity
The Phillips Memorial Gallery (The Phillips Collection) , Washington, D.C.
1945
National Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1945
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
1944
The Phillips Memorial Gallery (The Phillips Collection), Washington, D.C.
1941
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hearn Permanent Collection
New York, New York
1940
American Artists' Congress Fifth Annual Competitive Exhibition
ACA Gallery, New York, New York
1940
The National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1939
New School for Social Research, New York, New York
1939
Rockefeller Center, New York, New York
1938
ACA Gallery, New York, New York
1933
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York