William Scharf
American, 1927-2018
Abstract Composition with Teardrops
Abstract Composition with Bird
Abstract Composition with Shapes
Abstract Composition with Hooks
Abstract Composition
1980
silkscreen print
PR.112
William Scharf was an American painter who is often categorized as a late generation Abstract Expressionist. Known for producing paintings with abstract compositions incorporating biomorphic and geometric forms in vivid colors, the artist was influenced by Surrealism, the Color Field painters, and symbolism. Over the course of his six-decade career, Scharf had solo exhibitions at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC; the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College; and the High Museum in Atlanta. He also taught students at the Art Students League in New York for nearly thirty years. He was a personal friend and occasional studio assistant of Mark Rothko and was influenced by his color field paintings. Scharf’s paintings can be found in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; the Brooklyn Museum; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin; and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC.
William Scharf : Within White by
Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at Meredith Ward Fine Art, New York, Apr. 9-May 15, 2010.