Nicholas Marsicano American painter and teacher of the New York School

New York School

The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s, 1960s in New York City...

, was married to Dancer/Choreagrapher Merle Marsicano. He is survived by his widow, painter Susan Kamen Marsicano.

Marsicano's work was primarily based on the female figure.

Biography

"Nicholas Marsicano, who taught painting and drawing at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art for 42 years, died at his home in Woodstock, N.Y., last Sunday (January 6, 1991). He was 82 years old."

Early life

Nicholas Marsicano was born October 1, 1908, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

Shenandoah is a small town located in the lower part of the anthracite Coal Region, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It is northwest of Philadelphia. The Greater Shenandoah area includes Shenandoah Heights, which is part of West Mahanoy Township and is located just north of Shenandoah.-History:The...

.

He was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...

, Philadelphia, and later was accepted at the nearby Barnes Foundation, along with Ralston Crawford

Ralston Crawford

Ralston Crawford was an American abstract painter, lithographer, and photographer.-Early life:He was born on September 5, 1906, in Canada, at St. Catharines, Ontario, and spent his childhood in Buffalo, New York. He studied art beginning in 1927 in California at the Otis Art Institute. After...

. During his years at the Barnes, Marsicano traveled to Europe and North Africa, Mexico, and United States.

Marsicano befriended many artists of his time including Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...

, Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...

, Franz Kline

Franz Kline

Franz Jozef Kline was an American painter mainly associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement centered around New York in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and attended Girard College, an academy in Philadelphia for fatherless boys...

, Raoul Hague, Phillip Guston, and others.

During his teaching career, his students included Tom Wesselmann

Tom Wesselmann

Tom Wesselmann was an American artist associated with the Pop art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.-Early years:...

, Eva Hesse

Eva Hesse

Eva Hesse , was a German-born American sculptor, known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. -Early life:Hesse was born into a family of observant Jews in Hamburg, Germany...

, Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...

, Thomas Nozkowski, and more.

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

, 1974.

Major Shows

• 1960-62 Whitney Museum of American Art Annuale, New York
• 1961-63 "Abstract American Drawings and Watercolors", The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Major Collections

• Amarillo Art Center, Texas
• The Art Institute, Chicago
• Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
• The Figge Art Museum , Davenport, Iowa
• General Services Administration; Washington, DC.

Teaching

• Cooper Union
  Cooper Union
  The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
  
  
• Yale University
  Yale University
  Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
  
  
• University of Michigan
  University of Michigan
  The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
  
  
• Brooklyn Museum School
• Pratt Institute
  Pratt Institute
  Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
  
  
• Cornell University
  Cornell University
  Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
  
  
• Silvermine College of Fine Arts
• Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, Iowa
• State University of New York at Purchase
  State University of New York at Purchase
  Purchase College, State University of New York, is a public four-year college located in Purchase, New York, United States. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York system...
  
  

See also

• Art movement
  Art movement
  An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years...
  
  
• Abstract expressionism
  Abstract expressionism
  Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
  
  
• New York School
  New York School
  The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s, 1960s in New York City...
  
  
• American Figurative Expressionism
  American Figurative Expressionism
  According to Marilyn Stokstad, the art historian:-Early Expressionistic movements:Expressionistic movements before and after 1910 were developed by three artists' groups:• The Fauves • Die Brücke • Der Blaue Reiter...
  
  
• New York Figurative Expressionism
  New York Figurative Expressionism
  New York Figurative Expressionism of the 1950s represented a trend where "diverse New York artists countered the prevailing abstract mode to work with the figure."-Categories of figurative expressionist modes:...
  
  
• Stable Gallery
  Stable Gallery
  The Stable Gallery, originally located on West 58th Street in New York, was founded in 1953 by Eleanor Ward. The Stable Gallery hosted early solo New York exhibitions for artists including Robert Indiana and Andy Warhol.-History:...