Gerome Kamrowski
Quick Facts
Biography
Gerome Kamrowski (January 29, 1914 – March 27, 2004) was an American artist who played a pioneering role in the Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist movements in the United States.
Early life and education
Kamrowski was born in Warren, Minnesota, and in 1932 he began studying at the Saint Paul School of Art (now the Minnesota Museum of American Art) where he was exposed to a form of expressionist cubism. He was awarded a scholarship in 1933 to study at the Art Students League in New York under Hans Hofmann, but Hofmann was unable to take his position due to immigration issues. Kamrowski returned to St. Paul, Minnesota, and found a position in the mural painting division of the Minnesota FAP/WPA (Works Progress Administration). In 1936, he painted "Synthetic Cubist Style" frescoes in the Northrup Auditorium of the University of Minnesota.
In 1937, Kamrowski went to Chicago to study under László Moholy-Nagy and Alexander Archipenko at the New Bauhaus (now Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design), where he was exposed to new ideas about the role of nature in art. In 1938, he received a Guggenheim fellowship to attend Hofmann's summer school in Provincetown, Massachusetts, then moved to New York, where he met and painted with William Baziotes. Both Kamrowski and Baziotes were drawn to Surrealism's focus on intuition over intellect.
Career
Throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, Kamrowski became an integral part of the emerging Surrealists in New York, and in 1942 he was invited by Roberto Matta to join a group of artists, including William Baziotes, Jackson Pollock, Peter Busa, and Robert Motherwell, who were interested in experimenting with Surrealist techniques. Although the group didn't last long, it was considered as the kernel of the open-ended movement of abstract surrealism and later abstract expressionism.
Kamrowski's style was characterized by a focus on process rather than subject matter, seeking to bind all things together in a cosmic rhythm. He and Baziotes and Pollock had an amazing collaboration and painted together in the winter of 1939/1940. The painting produced from this event was pivotal, and it marked the transition and fusion of Surrealism to Action Painting and Abstract Expressionism.
In 1947, Kamrowski was invited to the Surrealist Exhibition in Paris by Surrealist leader André Breton. Breton said of him, "Of all the young painters whose evolution I have been able to follow in New York during the last years of the war, Gerome Kamrowski is the one who has impressed me far the most by reason of the "quality" and sustained character of his research. Among all the newcomers there, he was the only one...tunnelling in a new direction..."
Michigan years
In the 1940s Kamrowski relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan in order to teach at the University of Michigan School of Art. It was a career that would span thirty-eight years, and would encourage countless others to push their artistic boundaries. Professor Jon Rush, at the University's School of Art and Design, stated: "As a teacher, Professor Kamrowski admonished his students to experiment and push the boundaries of their art. He urged them to be unafraid of failure and consider it a natural part of the creative process," and says "Above all, he stressed the importance of finding one's own path and that it would take hard work and dedication to achieve that. He was a natural teacher who related well to students because he himself never stopped being one."
Teaching became a second passion. Over the years, Kamrowski's energy and drive never faltered, and his style continued to evolve dynamically from the abstract intellectual exercises of the past to colorful 3-D pieces often made of glass, cement, and random found objects. He worked every day and exhibited steadily in Michigan and elsewhere. He once said, "Michigan has been good to me, don't misunderstand me, but on the other hand I have a certain amount of contempt for it."
He cited architects Antoni Gaudi and Simon Rodia as inspirations.
Work
Kamrowski created 2 Venetian glass mosaics for the Joe Louis Arena Station of the Detroit People Mover elevated train. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Phillips Collection, Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, Israel Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Weisman Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Worcester Art Museum, Flint Institute of Arts, and University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Personal life
Kamrowski was first married to Maryanna Fargione, with whom he had a son, Felix. His second wife was Edith Dines and his third wife was Mary Jane Dodman.
Death
Kamrowski died at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan on March 27, 2004, at the age of 90.