For over 60 years, Seymour Boardman had created an oeuvre unparalleled in Contemporary Art – from colorful and vivid large-scale Abstract Expressionist paintings to minimalist and uncluttered-styled paintings.
Seymour (Sy) Boardman “Personal Geometries” Part II will feature a comprehensive body of work spanning the 1970s’ to the 2000′s. Following part I bringing together Abstract Expressionist pieces created by the artist between the 1940′s and the 1960′s, this second part focuses more on Boardman’s evolution toward a more Minimalist style. In this work, pastel colors are progressively used over bright colors while uncluttered and square-shaped lines progressively prevail over mosaic-like paintings of the 1960′s. More than ever during the second period of his artistic career, Boardman’s work aims to define visual structure, often replying on sharply articulated geometric principles and shapes.
“I consider Sy the most intellectual of all the artists that I have ever exhibited” says gallery owner Anita Shapolsky, “His painting resonates like jazz, ever evolving, the transcendence of improvisation is content. He liked jagged, architectural phrases, and beginning a line without knowing where it would end”. This “geometric colorist” and “abstract illusionist” as he was called, contributed to the psychology of perception with the use of only one hand (the other was disabled by the war). His work has inspired many young artists by its complexities, use of oil pastels, colors and division of space.
Boardman counteracted with many artists and good friends of him such as Sam Francis, Robert Ryman, and Mark Rothko, as they all experienced crises of confidence. His work is included in many major public collections such as the Brooklyn Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Newark Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Norton Gallery in Palm Beach, Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico and many other collections.