Draft:Gregory Masurovsky

• Comment: This article still needs a lot of work I feel. Sources aside, which do not seem very adequate in a cursory glance, this article has major tonal issues which will still need to be addressed. There are several locations that do not match the formal tone that would be expected of an encyclopedic article, including but not limited to: "She got over it. They went out.", "Their little dog, Sardi, is at her feet, also staring off.", "Early on, he sold some drawings.". This doesn't need to be the most eloquent piece in the world by any means, but the article rambles a lot more than necessary in its current state. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 09:24, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

• Comment: Creator comment copied from header: A few things: 1) I'd like to delete the first source, Adventures in the Print Trade. I'm guessing that it doesn't meet Wikipedia's standards for reliable sources. I don't know how to delete it. 2) About notability: given his many publications and inclusion in museum collections I think he merits inclusion as a noteworthy artist. 3) There are few secondary sources, which I guess is due to spending his career in France. There is one in English, the Black Mountain publication, which is the primary source for most of the information here. Is that acceptable? This may be a worthwhile way for people to find information about a little known artist.
  4) His wife has a Wikipedia page. She produced fewer artworks than her husband. (not written by: Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 09:19, 11 November 2023 (UTC) )

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Gregory Masurovsky (November 26, 1929 - July 17, 2009) was an American graphic artist known for his black and white illustrations.

A graduate of Black Mountain College, he lived most of his life in Paris with his wife, the abstract expressionist Shirley Goldfarb. He had a long professional and personal relationship with the French writer Michel Butor.

Early life

Masurovsky was born in the Bronx, New York City.

As a child, Masurovsky collected comic books and drew. At the age of 13 in 1942, he won a poster contest to support the war effort and had lunch with New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Masurovsky went to the High School of Music and Art. As a teenager, he did spot illustrations for the New York Times and other publications. His brother Disraeli, who encouraged Masurovsky’s artistic aspirations, led him to Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina.

At Black Mountain College, Masurovsky studied with painter Ilya Bolotowsky and poet M.C. Richards. Among his classmates: the painter Kenneth Noland, the director Arthur Penn and the writer Jame Leo Herlihy.

During the Korean War, he served as an army medic at Fort Lewis, Florida. He later got a job making props for the Ringling Bros. Circus in Florida. Returning to New York, Massurovsky worked for the painter and graphic artist Will Barnett at the Arts Students League. As an assistant in the lithography and etching classes, where he met his future wife, Shirley Goldfarb.

Masurovsky and Goldfarb sailed to Paris in 1954, where they spent the rest of their lives. From the 60s through the 80s, they were part of an artistic scene that included Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Jean-Paul Sartre and Alberto Giacometti.

Masurovsky and Goldfarb bought a small residence that doubled as a studio. In 1974, the painter David Hockney did a portrait of Masurovsky and Goldfarb. Masurovsky in the apartment. The painting is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Hockney said, "I was struck by the small studio they've lived in for twenty years, two tiny little rooms.... Their relationship is a weird subject: he can't go out of the building without her seeing, but she can...."

In 1977, Goldfarb became ill. She died of cancer in 1980 at age 55.

He died July 17, 2009. He was 79.

Career

In his career, Masurovsky concentrated on pen and ink drawings. In 1961 he won the Critic's Prize for Drawing at the Paris Biennale, and in 1963 he won the International Jury Prize for Etching at that year's exhibition. He had at least 32 one-man shows between 1957 and 2007. He was part of 46 group exhibitions between 1957 and 2007. Between 1963 and 2004, he illustrated at least 40 books, including 15 with the French writer Michel Butor.

From 1980 until 1998, Masurovsky taught classes: at the American Center in Paris, at the International Summer Academy, Salzburg, Austria; in England and America.

His work is in the collections of, among others, the Georges Pompidou Center - MNAM; MOMA, New York; Brooklyn Museum; the Norton Simon Museum ; The Library of Congress, Washington, DC; The Smithsonian American Art Museum ; Harvard Art Museums ; Portland Art Museum ; Philadelphia Museum of Art ; and the Victoria and Albert Museum .

Reception

Drawing, for Gregory Masurovsky, was ‘to sculpt in light’, according to Olivier Varenne, a Swiss art dealer. "In his portrait drawings, as much as his still-lifes and nudes, the extensive variety and range in his black on white also recalls the chiaroscuro in Old Master drawings, as much as the soft tonality of George Seurat and Eugène Carrière and the precision of the early works on paper by Lucien Freud."

"Known for his technical mastery and subtle approach, Masurovsky is held in high esteem as a draftsman, printmaker and book artist," according to the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. "Though his work may technically consist only of black and white (pen and ink drawings), the subtle shadings and shifting tonalities achieved with his tiny pen lines suggest the range of a whole spectrum of color. In their dynamism they relive the process of their making, balancing adroitly between evolution and resolution."