Ilya Bolotowsky
American, 1907 - 1981
Orange, Yellow and Blue Tondo, 1976, Acrylic on canvas, 39 1/2 inch diameter
Blue Horizontal, 1968, Oil on wood 5⅛ X 12½ inches
White Horizontal with Blue, Red, and Yellow, 1973, Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 65 inches
Pale Tondo, Oil on canvas, 1961, 23 1/2 inch diameter
Untitled, c. 1965, Acrylic on wood, 13 3/4 x 2 x 2 inches
Golden Tondo B, 1974, acrylic on wood, 30 inches in diameter
Ellipse with Yellows, Acrylic on canvas, 1977, 51 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches
Untitled, Oil on canvas, 1979, 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
SOLD Red Tondo, 1977, Oil on canvas, 20 inch diameter
SOLD Yellow Tondo, 1971, Acrylic on wood, 7 3/4 inch diameter
SOLD Abstraction, 1939-40, Oil on canvas, 22 x 30 inches
SOLD Three Yellows Vertical, 1970, Acrylic on wood panel, 12 x 8 inches
SOLD Column #11, 1963, Acrylic on wood, 18¼ by 3¼ by 3¼ inches
SOLD Untitled, 1981, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches
SOLD Untitled, Oil on canvas, 1972, 40 x 28 inches
SOLD Untitled, Oil on canvas, 1978, 27 1/2 x 19 3/4 inches
SOLD Deep Blue Diamond, Acrylic on panel, 1979, 12 x 12 inches
SOLD Abstraction in Square, 1978, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches
SOLD Untitled, 1978, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches
SOLD Untitled, 1967, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 inches
SOLD Untitled, 1969, oil on canvas, 42 x 42 inches
Ilya Bolotowsky had a legendary career that involved painting, sculpture, mural production, as well as teaching and also filmmaking. He was an idealist who constantly embraced new trends in search for order and balance in response to his tumultous upbringing in Russia. Born in St. Petersburg, Ilya Bolotowsky became a leading early 20th-century painter in abstract styles in New York City. His work, a search for philosophical order through visual expression, embraced Cubism and Geometric Abstraction and was much influenced by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
Bolotowsky immigrated to America in 1923 and, settling in New York City, attended the National Academy of Design. He became associated with a group called The Ten, artists including Julian Weir and Childe Hassam who rebelled against the strictures of the Academy and held independent exhibitions.
In 1936, having turned to Geometric Abstractions, he was one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists, a cooperative formed to promote the interests of abstract painters and to increase understanding between themselves and the public. During this period, Bolotowsky came under the influence of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian and the tenets of Neoplasticism, a movement that advocated the possibility of ideal order in the visual arts. Bolotowsky adopted his mentor's use of horizontal and vertical geometric pattern and a palette restricted to primary colors and neutrals.