The archives associated with the life and work of Jack Tworkov are deposited at the Archives of American Art and were done so by the Estate in 2009. The Jack Tworkov Papers measure 9.7 linear feet and are dated 1926-1993, with the bulk from the period 1931-1982. Tworkov's work as a painter and influential teacher, as well as his personal life, are documented by extensive journals and substantive correspondence that record his ideas about art and teaching, and illuminate his relationships with friends, colleagues, and students. Many sketchbooks, writings, interviews, photographs, and moving images are also included.
Download The Finding Aid for the Jack Tworkov PaPERS
from this rich resource, articles and moments in history are highlighted in contemporary text found in this blog maintained by Jason Andrew, Director of the Estate of Jack Tworkov
Michael Blackwood’s 1972 film “The New York School” explores the genesis of Abstract Expressionism through artist interviews and archival footage. In this featured clip, Tworkov discusses the critical decade of the late 1940s to late 1950s when the ethos and aesthetics of the movement coalesced in a cohesive new vision of American painting divorced from the European tradition.
On the occasion Jack Tworkov’s first post-humous retrospective curated by Richard Armstrong at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in 1987, friend and fellow artist Jennifer Bartlett accepted an invitation to discuss Tworkov’s work.
To mark the 50th Anniversary of the dedication of The Rothko Chapel, the Estate of Jack Tworkov revisits a never before published journal entry by Jack Tworkov.
On the occasion of the acquistion of major paintings by Jack Tworkov and Richard Dienbenkorn by the Cleveland Museum of Art, Associate Curator Tom E. Hinson published this rare juxtaposition of Tworkov and Dienbenkorn in The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art in February 1980.
On the occasion of the Chaim Soutine exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York, aptly titled “Flesh,” we revisit the historic essay written by Jack Tworkov on Soutine's retrospective at MoMA originally published in ARTnews in November 1950.
JTwas one of the young Robert Rauschenberg’s relatively few admirers among the older generation of Abstract Expressionists. Estate Curator, Jason Andrew, offers this rare and historic insight into Rauschenberg's unique relationship with JT.
This May, Alexander Gray Associates will present Jack Tworkov's Triptych at Frieze New York. This presentation marks the first time the painting has been exhibited before a New York audience in 35 years. Estate curator, Jason Andrew, researched the history behind the making of one of the artist's greatest masterworks.
Sometimes the most memorable and historic moments in the art world are those that take place far from the grand stages of the worlds most famous galleries and museums. We have come to cherish these rare intimate moments captured in photographs where we see the solitary artist in their studio or a group scattered around a dinner table or crowding over a bar deep in conversation. This photo-essay features recently discovered negatives from the Tworkov Family Archive of a lively gathering of friends and family celebrating Thanksgiving 1958 at the Provincetown home of Hans Hofmann.
Two important paintings by Jack Tworkov will be offered at Sotheby's this March. The paintings bridge the gab of twenty years of painting.
In the summer of 1960, Jack Tworkov was invited as a guest lecturer and visiting artist to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Rather than offering a prepared talk, Tworkov asks for questions from the audience and a spontaneous conversation ensues. Tworkov discusses his early education, abstract painting / abstract expressionism, role of a teacher, state of art education and the changes facing abstract painting versus figurative/subject.
50 years ago this year the Whitney Museum of American Art opened a major survey of Jack Tworkov's work featuring 60 paintings, 5 collages, and 19 drawings. The exhibition opened at the Whitney on March 25 and ran until May 3, 1964, then traveled to other American museums including the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center among others. Accompanying this historic exhibition was a substantial catalogue. In celebration of the 50th year of the exhibition, the catalogue essay written by Edward Bryant has been reproduced herein as well as the corresponding illustrations.
On view now through February 28, 2015 at the Lawrence A. Gleischman Gallery at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, is an exciting exhibition featuring diaries of famous artists including Oscar Bluemner, Joseph Cornell, Helen Torr Dove, Blanche Lazzell, Charles Green Shaw, John Storrs, Karl and Marion Zerbe, and Jack Tworkov among others.
This fall, a major work by Jack Tworkov will be auctioned at Sotheby's New York. Painted in 1957-58, "Queen II," is a signature example of Tworkov's Abstract Expressionist period. To mark the appearance of such work of this rarity, Jason Andrew, Manager/Curator of the Estate of Jack Tworkov offers a brief history of the painting and it's relationship to it's time and place.
Published in Art News in May 1953, this article features Tworkov speaking candidly about a new series of paintings titled "House of the Sun." Written by Fairfield Porter with photographs by Rudy Burckhardt, it was one of the first articles in an important new series titled "Paints a Picture." The series was commissioned by the then editor of Art News, Thomas B. Hess and included features with Hans Hoffman, Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell and Jackson Pollock among others.