Bronx NY Born 1947 Street & Elite Bred
George Schulman Street and Elite Bred
MFA Abstract Expressionist Painter and Collagist George Schulman born 1947 was front and centerduring historically during New York City’s most creative era.
His friends, teachers, mentors and students' great Masters and Icons of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art and the Contemporary Art movement.
George Schulman a classically artist trained fine artist can paint in any style and medium. Sure of hand Schulman can easily go from representational figurative and landscape to abstract. Painting and collaging since a child, showing early on in Madison Avenue and budding Soho, Galleries the Whitney, overwhelmed by over education and early influences it would take years for Schulman to find voice.
A colorist who feels most connected to Van Gogh Matisse and Cezanne, Schulman’s early influences came from his much older childless second Cousin who helped to rear him, Freda Diamond. Smithsonian listed MOMA collected, in 1954 Life Magazine Cover read “Designer for Everyone”. Freda, MOMA and Smithsomian Museums showcased and collected was reknown for Libby Glass, home furnishings and designing a vacum cleaner. Schulmans Aunts, Cousins and Grandparents came from Vilna, Poland a major center of Jewish culture s leaving before tthe Holocaust, excelled in the Fashion, Science and JewishTheater.
The Bronx where his Grandparents and parents settled was orgnially Jewish, Irish and Italian elite until the Bronx Riverside Parkway cut off easy access to Manhatten. Many moved his family remained. Once luxury buildings now housed blacks and hispanic imagrants, sweat shops,Westside Story gangs, the Bronx burning, Yankee Stadium and the birth of Hip Hop. Schulman whose grandparents raised him owned a Bronx Bridal and Tailor shop,. loved streetlife, its grit, flagrance and flavour which Schulman laer document in his Bronx Series.To keep boys out of trouble the police startd Boxing Clubs. Schulman never lost a fight and felt just as home on the Bronx streets as he did with Manhattan elites.
Schulman’s world was filled with ccourage passion, and inspiration, his first art teachers Freda’s friends were Miro and Chagall. Gifted by his father with an art encyclopedia young Schulman in-depth knowledge of classic and contemporary art and artists gave him an early entrée into Manhattans inner art circles.
Front and center in the Abstract Expressionism Pop Art Punk and Hip-Hop Shulmans friends,’ family, teachers, mentors, and students the who’s who of the art movements which established New York as the art capital of the world. His formal training includes New York Music and Art High School, a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, and MFA from Brooklyn College.
In the Words of George Schulman
"I have been painting and collaging using fabric, lace, buttons and found objects since a small boy. Painting with white shoe polish on brown shopping bag, Instead of glue., my grandmother and the sweatshop girls across the alley, taught me how to sew. Today, I can make my own lace, use acrylic oils pencils and markers, use 24k Gold Leaf and Palledium adding fabric, lace, novelty and found objects not unlike today, the difference,a steady hand and the use of digital.
Over the past 40+ years I have been very fortunate to have great teachers and mentors help me hone my skills, but it would take years of trial and error to find my voice. My work may appear abstract, but I use plastic 3-D consideration, to create motion images and forms, like a deck of cards are continually shuffled and overlapped, using to give each painting their particular mood. Like poems, I tell my stories, some work taking years to complete.
Using the classic "Golden Ratio", I am very interested in the dimensions and size of each work andthe surface of the work itself. A big consideration is the use of white light and shadow. In regards to color shape and design, I reference Art History, Chiaroscuro,, Islamic and Persian art. Utilizing linear elements in iunique ways. I am continually discovering, taking chances and challenging myself".
The Bronx Series
"The Bronx Series 2008-2011 is a time-capsule, meant to give a voice its to people and their place in time. I referred to newspaper photos and photos taken on site driving around and in Bronx Gang War Zones. I was interested in documenting graffiti made by it's street artists.
To make them my own, I combined digital and hand drawn life drawings, fabricating them into my signature style art of painting and collaging. Graphic signs are my own, telling the stories using very readable stylized symbols. By cutting and gluing, I simplified considering drawing, as well as shape. When the fabric wasn't the right color, I used paint to clarify structure and design".
The Jewish Series
"Thinking about my Jewish heritage, my Great Grandfather a Cantor and Poet, my Grandparents a Bridal Dress Designer and Tailor who made Suits in their Bronx Shop on 3rd Avenue by the L Friday nights after Shul my Grandmother Lena's weekly card game, the smell of hot coffee the assortment of Danish.
Going to the Synagogue where my only child was Bar Mitzvahed, the Rabbi gave me books in both Hebrew and English of the Torah. Observed the script was similar to the linear elements used in my work, adapted Hebrew words and writing into my alphabet of mark–making.
Works on Paper include hand made lace paper , melted wax crayons, magic markers, powdered pigments, ball point pens, graphite pencils, straws, and aluminum foil held together by different binders, until one was indistinguishable from the other".
My Process
"I paint because I love the process. I start by considering the size, subject, surface as well as medium. I push each one as far as I can, using all my past and present experiences, hoping each time it will appear new and fresh. The tricky part is knowing when to stop.
I do my best work when I am uncomfortable. I want my work to be fresh and when it's unfamiliar it gives me an opportunity to be both inventive, through the use of color composition elements, as well as the story I am telling.
My work tells me what to do, I am just the facilitator of the process, it is exhilarating and exciting.. As I developed as an artist, what occurred is I gained visual acuity. Like a dancer, my hands and body become one in the process.
I work without expectation, looking and at times referencing masterworks, I always consider the top, bottom and middle piecing all these parts together. To me it’s like creating a complicated map, design pattern and mark making. After a while the work speaks to me and tell me what to do".