1. John Opper was an American painter who transitioned from semi-abstract paintings in the late 1930s to fully abstract ones in the 1950s.
26 Facts About John Opper
1. 2.
John Opper became known for his handling of color and in particular his ability to create dramatic intensity on the picture plane by means of juxtaposed, more-or-less rectangular areas of color.
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John Opper was associated with the abstract expressionist movement and frequently showed in galleries that specialized in abstract expressionist art.
4.
John Opper became interested in drawing at a young age.
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John Opper spent the following year in Chicago taking classes at the Art Institute and subsequently returned to Cleveland where he enrolled at Western Reserve University, graduating in 1932.
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In 1934 John Opper moved to Manhattan and a year later began to work in the studio that Hofmann had set up as the School of Fine Arts on East 57th Street.
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In 1936 John Opper became a founding member of American Abstract Artists, a group formed by New York artists to promote and exhibit a style of art that was then derided by critics and shunned by collectors.
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John Opper later said that the project was a lifesaver for impoverished artists, particularly abstract artists such as himself.
9.
John Opper grew disenchanted with this organization, in turn, and left it after submitting work to two of its group exhibitions.
10.
John Opper was given his first solo exhibition at the Artists Gallery in 1937.
11.
John Opper had come to the conclusion that he could not create art as a means of correcting society's ills.
12.
John Opper took on war-related work between 1942 and 1945 and produced less art than he had in the 1930s.
13.
In 1953 John Opper participated in a group show held at a New York commercial gallery and in 1955 he was the last of a series of abstract expressionist artists to be given solo exhibitions at the Egan Gallery.
14.
In 1966 John Opper began an association with the Grace Borgenicht Gallery which lasted into the 1990s.
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John Opper used oil on canvas and made some lithographic prints.
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John Opper's works are mostly easel-size or, if larger, small enough to be painted from a stationary position.
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John Opper later explained that some of his motivation for abandoning representation came partly from his feeling for color.
18.
When John Opper took a teaching job in North Carolina following the war, he was able to spend more time painting and his style shifted from semi-abstract to fully abstract.
19.
John Opper was of two minds about these extended periods of time he spent away from the emerging abstract expressionist art scene in Manhattan.
20.
John Opper missed the productive ambiance that he experienced when he mixed socially with other experimental artists, but on the other hand he was uncomfortable with the competition for recognition in that environment.
21.
John Opper did not start even with an idea, but rather made a beginning and responded to his instincts about the painting as it progressed.
22.
At age 24, when his studies at Western Reserve were coming to an end, John Opper got a job as a part-time art instructor at Karamu House, a Cleveland settlement house school.
23.
John Opper was born on October 29,1908, in Chicago, Illinois, to Joseph Opper and his wife Mary Milstein Opper.
24.
John Opper had been born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1910, and like him, died in 1994.
25.
Between 1941 and 1945 John Opper worked for a marine architectural company making pipe system drawings of PT boats.
26.
John Opper died in New York City on October 4,1994, and is buried in East Hampton's Green River Cemetery.