Seymour Fogel

American, 1911-1984
SOLD
Night Fire, 1956
SOLD
Untitled, 1962
SOLD
The Word, 1956
SOLD
Untitled, 1959
SOLD
The Caves
SOLD
Untitled (circle abstract), circa 1960s
**ADDITIONAL PAINTINGS BY THE ARTIST CURRENTLY IN INVENTORY. PLEASE CONTACT GALLERY FOR DETAILS.**

Seymour Fogel was born in New York City on August 24, 1911. He studied at the Art Students League and at the National Academy of Design under George Bridgeman and Leon Kroll. When his formal studies were concluded in the early 1930s, he served as an assistant to Diego Rivera, who was then at work on his controversial Rockefeller Center mural. It was from Rivera that he learned the art of mural painting.

Fogel was awarded several mural commissions during the 1930s by both the Works Progress Administration and the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Among his earliest murals were a mural at the Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York in 1936, a mural in the WPA Building at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, a highly controversial mural at the U.S. Post Office in Safford, Arizona in 1941 and two murals in what was then the Social Security Building in Washington, D.C., also in 1941. Fogel's artistic circle at this time included Phillip Guston, Ben Shahn, Franz Kline, Rockwell Kent and Willem de Kooning. In 1946, Fogel accepted a teaching position at the University of Texas at Austin and became one of the founding artists of the Texas Modernist Movement.

At this time, he began to devote himself solely to abstract, nonrepresentational art, and executed what many consider to be the very first abstract mural in the State of Texas at the American National Bank in Austin in 1953. He pioneered the use of ethyl silicate as a mural medium. Other murals and public works of art done during this time, the late 1940s and 1950s, include the Baptist Student Center at the University of Texas in 1949, the Petroleum Club in Houston in 1951, and the First Christian Church, also in Houston in 1956, whose innovative use of stained glass panels incorporated into the mural won Fogel a Silver Medal from the Architectural League of New York in 1958.

Fogel relocated to the Connecticut/New York area in 1959. He continued the Abstract Expressionism he had begun exploring in Texas, and began experimenting with various texturing media for his paintings, the most enduring of which was sand. In 1966, he was awarded a mural at the U.S. Federal Building in Fort Worth, Texas. The work, entitled The Challenge of Space, was a milestone in his artistic career, and ushered in what has been termed the Transcendental/Atavistic period of his art, a style he pursued up to his death in 1984. Painted and raw wood sculpture was also reflective of this style. Another mural done during this period was the U.S. Customs Building at Foley Square in New York City, which was entirely executed in mosaic tiles, a mural medium he preferred in the last decades of his career.

Fogel's work is well represented in the collections of major museums, among them being the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art in Texas, the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., The State Museum of Louisiana in New Orleans, and the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia.

During his life Fogel authored numerous articles on the interrelationship of art and architecture, served as a Vice President of the Architectural League of New York and has had his work imaged and/or discussed in some thirty books, including Nathanial Pousette-Dart's seminal work American Painting Today, where Fogel was included along with the likes of Milton Avery, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Stuart Davis as important American artists.

Three National First Prizes for Mural Paintings, 1939-1942

First Prize, Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas, 1951

Houston Museum of Fine Arts Prize, Texas State Fair, Dallas, Texas, 1953

Feldman Collection Art Award, Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas, 1955

First Prize, Texas State Fair, Dallas, Texas, 1955

First Prize, D.D. Feldman Invitational, Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas, 1956

First Prize, Gulf Caribbean International, Houston, Texas, 1956

Silver medal, Architectural League of New York, 1958

Second Prize, D.D. Feldman Invitational, Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas, 1958

National Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1939

WPA Building, World's Fair, New York, New York, 1939-1940

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, 1940

Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1943

Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1945

Levitt Gallery, New York, New York, 1945

"Designs for Murals, Petroleum Club by Seymour Fogel", Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, 1951

Kendall Gallery, San Angelo, Texas, 1953

Fort Worth Art Museum, Texas, 1954

MacLean Gallery, Dallas, Texas, 1954

Headliners Club, Austin, Texas, 1955

Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas, 1955

Duveen Graham Gallery, New York, New York, 1956

Santa Barbara Art Museum, California, 1957

M. Knoedler and Co., New York, New York, 1958

Architectural League of New York, 1960

Michigan State University, 1961

Park Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, 1961

Allen Stone Gallery, New York, New York, 1963

Springfield Missouri Art Museum, 1964

Amel Gallery, New York, New York, 1965

"Recent Drawings & Constructions", Graham Gallery, New York, New York, 1981

"The Woodland Portfolio", Graham Gallery, New York, New York, 1983

Graham Modern, New York, New York, 1984

"Structure & Vision", Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, 1984

"The Search for Structure", Westport/Weston Arts Council, Weston, Connecticut, 1984

"Seymour Fogel: On the Wall and Beyond", The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas, 2015

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia

Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina

Dallas Museum of Art, Texas

State Museum of Louisiana, New Orleans

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

Seymour Fogel was born in New York City on August 24, 1911. He studied at the Art Students League and at the National Academy of Design under George Bridgeman and Leon Kroll. When his formal studies were concluded in the early 1930s, he served as an assistant to Diego Rivera, who was then at work on his controversial Rockefeller Center mural. It was from Rivera that he learned the art of mural painting.

Fogel was awarded several mural commissions during the 1930s by both the Works Progress Administration and the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Among his earliest murals were a mural at the Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York in 1936, a mural in the WPA Building at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, a highly controversial mural at the U.S. Post Office in Safford, Arizona in 1941 and two murals in what was then the Social Security Building in Washington, D.C., also in 1941. Fogel's artistic circle at this time included Phillip Guston, Ben Shahn, Franz Kline, Rockwell Kent and Willem de Kooning. In 1946, Fogel accepted a teaching position at the University of Texas at Austin and became one of the founding artists of the Texas Modernist Movement.

At this time, he began to devote himself solely to abstract, nonrepresentational art, and executed what many consider to be the very first abstract mural in the State of Texas at the American National Bank in Austin in 1953. He pioneered the use of ethyl silicate as a mural medium. Other murals and public works of art done during this time, the late 1940s and 1950s, include the Baptist Student Center at the University of Texas in 1949, the Petroleum Club in Houston in 1951, and the First Christian Church, also in Houston in 1956, whose innovative use of stained glass panels incorporated into the mural won Fogel a Silver Medal from the Architectural League of New York in 1958.

Fogel relocated to the Connecticut/New York area in 1959. He continued the Abstract Expressionism he had begun exploring in Texas, and began experimenting with various texturing media for his paintings, the most enduring of which was sand. In 1966, he was awarded a mural at the U.S. Federal Building in Fort Worth, Texas. The work, entitled The Challenge of Space, was a milestone in his artistic career, and ushered in what has been termed the Transcendental/Atavistic period of his art, a style he pursued up to his death in 1984. Painted and raw wood sculpture was also reflective of this style. Another mural done during this period was the U.S. Customs Building at Foley Square in New York City, which was entirely executed in mosaic tiles, a mural medium he preferred in the last decades of his career.

Fogel's work is well represented in the collections of major museums, among them being the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art in Texas, the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., The State Museum of Louisiana in New Orleans, and the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia.

During his life Fogel authored numerous articles on the interrelationship of art and architecture, served as a Vice President of the Architectural League of New York and has had his work imaged and/or discussed in some thirty books, including Nathanial Pousette-Dart's seminal work American Painting Today, where Fogel was included along with the likes of Milton Avery, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Stuart Davis as important American artists.

Awards & Memberships

Three National First Prizes for Mural Paintings, 1939-1942

First Prize, Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas, 1951

Houston Museum of Fine Arts Prize, Texas State Fair, Dallas, Texas, 1953

Feldman Collection Art Award, Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas, 1955

First Prize, Texas State Fair, Dallas, Texas, 1955

First Prize, D.D. Feldman Invitational, Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas, 1956

First Prize, Gulf Caribbean International, Houston, Texas, 1956

Silver medal, Architectural League of New York, 1958

Second Prize, D.D. Feldman Invitational, Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas, 1958

Selected Exhibitions

National Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1939

WPA Building, World's Fair, New York, New York, 1939-1940

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, 1940

Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1943

Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1945

Levitt Gallery, New York, New York, 1945

"Designs for Murals, Petroleum Club by Seymour Fogel", Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, 1951

Kendall Gallery, San Angelo, Texas, 1953

Fort Worth Art Museum, Texas, 1954

MacLean Gallery, Dallas, Texas, 1954

Headliners Club, Austin, Texas, 1955

Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas, 1955

Duveen Graham Gallery, New York, New York, 1956

Santa Barbara Art Museum, California, 1957

M. Knoedler and Co., New York, New York, 1958

Architectural League of New York, 1960

Michigan State University, 1961

Park Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, 1961

Allen Stone Gallery, New York, New York, 1963

Springfield Missouri Art Museum, 1964

Amel Gallery, New York, New York, 1965

"Recent Drawings & Constructions", Graham Gallery, New York, New York, 1981

"The Woodland Portfolio", Graham Gallery, New York, New York, 1983

Graham Modern, New York, New York, 1984

"Structure & Vision", Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, 1984

"The Search for Structure", Westport/Weston Arts Council, Weston, Connecticut, 1984

"Seymour Fogel: On the Wall and Beyond", The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas, 2015

Museums & Collections

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia

Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina

Dallas Museum of Art, Texas

State Museum of Louisiana, New Orleans

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

By The Same Artist...

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