Ilya Bolotowsky
(St. Petersburg, Russia, 1907 - 1981, New York, United States)
Yellow Tondo
1974
Acrylic on canvas
47 1/2 x 47 1/2 in. (120.7 x 120.7 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Purchased with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John A. McAlonan Trust Fund
1975.4
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Bolotowsky was heavily influenced by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, who emphasized abstract shapes over naturalistic imagery and restricted his palette to black, white and the primary colors (blue, yellow and red). Rather than seeing these principles as limiting, Bolotowsky, like Mondrian, felt that pure forms could transcend the material world to convey “feelings of timeless harmony.” Bolotowsky often worked with unusually shaped canvases such as the tondo (circular shape) seen here. A leading American advocate of geometric abstraction, in 1936 he helped found the still active, artist-run organization American Abstract Artists.
Keywords
AmericanAbstract art
Oil painting
Circle
Color Field