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Abstract Expressionist painter Charles Seliger dies in Manhattan
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Charles Seliger in his New York studio. Photo: Mark Seliger 2009
Charles Seliger: June 3, 1926 - Oct. 1, 2009
On Wednesday evening, Abstract Expressionist painter Charles Seliger was standing next to me at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, talking about how much he loved old books and the used bookstores that had once lined Fourth Avenue on the Lower East Side. He looked very elegant, in a jacket and bow-tie, and he spoke with an enthusiasm that belied his 83 years.
Seliger, a New Yorker who grew up in Jersey City, had his first solo show at the legendary Art of This Century Gallery, when he was just 19 years old. During the 1940s, he was the youngest of a group of Abstract Expressionist painters championed by Peggy Guggenheim. Influenced by the Surrealists and their experiments with automatic drawing, he developed an improvisational approach to painting, similar to what some musicians were doing with jazz.
“My paintings always begin with free improvisation,” he once explained to writer Francis O’Connor. “But later, I use all my knowledge, instinct and technique to make the painting work.”
For more than six decades, Seliger pursued his artistic vision with an extraordinary single-mindedness. When he was 20, the Museum of Modern Art purchased his “Natural History: Form Within Rock” (1946) for their permanent collection. Since then, he has had solo shows in more than 46 galleries around the world and, in 1986, was given a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. For the last 20 years, he has been represented by the Michael Rosenberg Gallery on West 57th Street.
Seliger is best-known for his small, elaborately detailed panels, covered with biomorphic forms, painted in luminous acrylic colors. Some look like a biologist’s take on Rube Goldberg contraptions, others like nebula or slides covered with paramecium. The works have names like “Cellular Mansion,” “Suction, the Epicurian” and “Aquarium.”
“Microscopic views of the natural world” is the way an observer once described them.
Seliger’s affinity for science and organic forms seems part and parcel with his love of books and learning. A high school dropout, who ended up being more well-read than many college graduates, he spent much of his life reading omnivorously on a broad range of subjects: art, history, science, literature.
“Once, when I was in one of those used bookshops, I found a book by the writer William Dean Howells,” Seliger told me on Wednesday evening. “When I got the book home, I noticed there was an inscription inside. It said, ‘To my dear sister.’ And it was signed by Howells.”
He smiled at the memory, still relishing the thought that he had ended up with the very special, personalized volume .
I had never met Seliger before, but on Wednesday evening, as art lovers sipped wine and circled around, I was immediately charmed by the octogenarian painter’s warmth and humor. When I headed home, the image of his broad smile and crinkly eyes stayed with me for the rest of the evening. There was something at once inspiring and comforting about his presence.
Today I was shocked to learn that, minutes after I left the gallery, Seliger became dizzy and was rushed to St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital. He had suffered a massive stroke. The next day, he died, surrounded by his wife Lenore, sons Mark and Robert, Michael Rosenfeld and gallery director Halley Harrisburg.
“Charles was a thoughtful, generous, sweet, kind and funny person,” said Harrisburg, when I called to express my condolences. “There was no other like him in the art world. He was a true and pure spirit.”
The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery plans to mount an exhibition to celebrate his life and art in January 2010.
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery – 24 West 57th Street, NYC – 212-247-0402
Related links:
Interview with Charles Seliger: The Brooklyn Rail
Bookstores of the East Village
Charles Seliger: Redefining Abstract Expressionism - by Francis O'Connor
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