Tania (artist)
Encyclopedia
Tania was a Polish-born, New York based, Jewish American abstract painter, sculptor, collage artist, and painter of city walls. She was known by several different married names over the course of her career (including Tania Pollak, Tania Milicevic, Tania Schreiber, Tania Schreiber-Milicevic, Tania Milicevic-Mills, and Tania Mills), but decided as of 1958 to use simply her first name, Tania. She was active in the New York art world from 1949 to 1982, but is perhaps best known for her 13-story geometric wall painting of 1970, which still stands at the corner of Mercer St. & 3rd St. in Greenwich Village, New York. In 1966, she became a founding member of City Walls, Inc., a non-profit organization that commissioned abstract artists to paint walls around New York City, and which (when consolidated with the Public Arts Council in 1977) would later become the Public Art Fund.
, where she studied painting with Yasuo Kuniyoshi
, Morris Kantor
, and Vaclav Vytlacil.
titled Portrait of Djordje Milicevic (1967). According to Barnet, Tania asked him to paint the portrait; he has called it "one of my best paintings." At the time of her death, she was married to the artist Ranger Mills. She was good friends with Ad Reinhardt
, Rita Reinhardt, and Barnet. From 1963-1966, she rented an apartment in the Reinhardts' brownstone on East 19th St.
, both in terms of their subject matter and color palette. In her student years, she exhibited in juried student exhibitions at the Art Students' League. In 1951, she was included in a group show of newcomers at the Creative Gallery. From 1954-58, she made a living designing wallpaper, fabrics, and carpets while raising her young children.
Tania had her first "one-man show" at Albert Landry Gallery in 1959. She asked Ad Reinhardt
to help her hang the show. Through the early 1960s, she worked primarily in collage and assemblage. This phase featured abstract collages of corrugated cardboard and paint as well as more heavily Pop-influenced collages and wood assemblages featuring signage, advertising, and other found materials. She exhibited several of these colorful wood sculptures in her 1963 solo show at Bertha Schaefer Gallery under the name "Color Structures." During this time, Tania also exhibited what she called her "complementary paintings," works comprising two abutted canvases. These "complementary" (or "binary" works) typically combined collaged canvases with monochrome ones. In a related set of works on paper, she mounted collages opposite her own poetry in French. Her 1961 show at Landry Gallery included complementary paintings and corrugated board collages, but also several large-scale "environments." In 1962, she was sponsored by Ad Reinhardt
, Philip Pearlstein
and Pandolfini and elected as a member of the The Artists' Club. She began teaching at New York University in 1963.
Two drawings housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art show that Tania had arrived at her geometric style at least by 1967. She produced paintings and prints featuring variations on her characteristic "overlapping triangles" composition. In this period, she also produced large-scale aluminum sculptures that translated the overlapping triangles composition into multi-planar, three-dimensional form. Examples of this type of sculpture can be seen in the Kingsborough Community College Marine & Academic Center building in Brooklyn and on the library at Albright College in Reading, PA. In a statement from 1978, Tania likened her triangles to rooftops, seen from above: "For a few years now I have been thinking of my paintings (always executed on the floor) as roof tops seen from the air - in the clouds - in the sun - in the night. The paintings have become sketches for buildings planned from the top down...The Spiral Jetty
of Smithson
could be done in the City."
From roughly 1966, when she co-founded City Walls Inc., Tania had begun to devote much of her energy to public and outdoor art projects. With the sponsorship of City Walls, she painted walls at Evergreen & Weirfield Aves in Brooklyn (1968), Bryant & Lafayette Aves in the Bronx (1968), and at Mercer & 3rd St. in Manhattan (1970), but only the Manhattan wall remains. In 1972, she collaborated with Nassos Daphnis
to produce a temporary "environment in process" by painting various surfaces at the construction site of a high-rise in Times Square—from the building's skeleton (Daphnis), to the surrounding plywood scaffolding, to construction workers' shoes and toolboxes.
Tania commented in her writings about the difficulty of being a woman artist who painted geometric abstractions. In one unpublished autobiographical text she writes, "My paintings were 'too large for a woman,' said the New York Times ...I painted like a man... I guess I was supposed to paint flowers."
She also designed doors for a Torah ark (1966–67) that is still in use at the White Street Synagogue (or Synagogue for the Arts) in New York.
Early Life & Education
Tania was born in 1920 in Warsaw, Poland, to Mischa (Michael) and Rosalia (Rose) Lewin. Around 1931, the family emigrated to Paris, where Tania spent the rest of her childhood. The family fled to Montréal, Canada in 1941 following Germany's invasion of France. There, Tania received a Master of Arts from McGill University before relocating to New York City with her parents in 1943. She began a PhD in French Literature at Columbia University, but left the program with ABD status. In 1949, she began courses at the Art Students League of New YorkArt Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
, where she studied painting with Yasuo Kuniyoshi
Yasuo Kuniyoshi
was an American painter, photographer and printmaker born in Okayama, Japan.He migrated to America in 1906, a year later began studying at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design. In 1935 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. He taught at the Art Students League of New York in New York City...
, Morris Kantor
Morris Kantor
Morris Kantor was a Russian-born American painter based in the New York City area. Born in Minsk in 1896, Kantor was brought to the United States as a child in 1906. He made his home in West Nyack, New York for much of his life, and died there in 1974...
, and Vaclav Vytlacil.
Personal life
Tania married John Paul Pollak, a Polish-born mechanical engineer, around 1944. The couple had two children, Roger (1945) and Ellen Pollak (1948), but divorced around 1954. Tania was married in subsequent years to the architect (and now painter) Shepherd Schreiber and the photographer Djordje Milicevic. Milicevic was featured in a painting by Will BarnetWill Barnet
Will Barnet is an American artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds.-Biography:...
titled Portrait of Djordje Milicevic (1967). According to Barnet, Tania asked him to paint the portrait; he has called it "one of my best paintings." At the time of her death, she was married to the artist Ranger Mills. She was good friends with Ad Reinhardt
Ad Reinhardt
Adolph Frederick Reinhardt was an Abstract painter active in New York beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists and was a part of the movement centered around the Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as Abstract Expressionism...
, Rita Reinhardt, and Barnet. From 1963-1966, she rented an apartment in the Reinhardts' brownstone on East 19th St.
Work & Career
Over the course of her career, Tania worked in a number of styles before settling on her characteristic geometric abstract style featuring hard-edged triangles. Her early paintings from the late 1940s evidence the influence of her teacher Yasuo KuniyoshiYasuo Kuniyoshi
was an American painter, photographer and printmaker born in Okayama, Japan.He migrated to America in 1906, a year later began studying at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design. In 1935 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. He taught at the Art Students League of New York in New York City...
, both in terms of their subject matter and color palette. In her student years, she exhibited in juried student exhibitions at the Art Students' League. In 1951, she was included in a group show of newcomers at the Creative Gallery. From 1954-58, she made a living designing wallpaper, fabrics, and carpets while raising her young children.
Tania had her first "one-man show" at Albert Landry Gallery in 1959. She asked Ad Reinhardt
Ad Reinhardt
Adolph Frederick Reinhardt was an Abstract painter active in New York beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists and was a part of the movement centered around the Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as Abstract Expressionism...
to help her hang the show. Through the early 1960s, she worked primarily in collage and assemblage. This phase featured abstract collages of corrugated cardboard and paint as well as more heavily Pop-influenced collages and wood assemblages featuring signage, advertising, and other found materials. She exhibited several of these colorful wood sculptures in her 1963 solo show at Bertha Schaefer Gallery under the name "Color Structures." During this time, Tania also exhibited what she called her "complementary paintings," works comprising two abutted canvases. These "complementary" (or "binary" works) typically combined collaged canvases with monochrome ones. In a related set of works on paper, she mounted collages opposite her own poetry in French. Her 1961 show at Landry Gallery included complementary paintings and corrugated board collages, but also several large-scale "environments." In 1962, she was sponsored by Ad Reinhardt
Ad Reinhardt
Adolph Frederick Reinhardt was an Abstract painter active in New York beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists and was a part of the movement centered around the Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as Abstract Expressionism...
, Philip Pearlstein
Philip Pearlstein
Philip Pearlstein is an American painter, and part of the contemporary Realist school.-Biography:Pearlstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and received his Masters in art history at New York University. He was a friend of Andy Warhol from...
and Pandolfini and elected as a member of the The Artists' Club. She began teaching at New York University in 1963.
Two drawings housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art show that Tania had arrived at her geometric style at least by 1967. She produced paintings and prints featuring variations on her characteristic "overlapping triangles" composition. In this period, she also produced large-scale aluminum sculptures that translated the overlapping triangles composition into multi-planar, three-dimensional form. Examples of this type of sculpture can be seen in the Kingsborough Community College Marine & Academic Center building in Brooklyn and on the library at Albright College in Reading, PA. In a statement from 1978, Tania likened her triangles to rooftops, seen from above: "For a few years now I have been thinking of my paintings (always executed on the floor) as roof tops seen from the air - in the clouds - in the sun - in the night. The paintings have become sketches for buildings planned from the top down...The Spiral Jetty
Spiral Jetty
The Spiral Jetty, considered to be the central work of American sculptor Robert Smithson, is an earthwork sculpture constructed in 1970.Built entirely of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks, earth, and water on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point in Utah, it forms a , ...
of Smithson
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson was an American artist famous for his land art.-Background and education:Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey and studied painting and drawing in New York City at the Art Students League of New York....
could be done in the City."
From roughly 1966, when she co-founded City Walls Inc., Tania had begun to devote much of her energy to public and outdoor art projects. With the sponsorship of City Walls, she painted walls at Evergreen & Weirfield Aves in Brooklyn (1968), Bryant & Lafayette Aves in the Bronx (1968), and at Mercer & 3rd St. in Manhattan (1970), but only the Manhattan wall remains. In 1972, she collaborated with Nassos Daphnis
Nassos Daphnis
Nassos Daphnis was a Greek born American abstract painter and tree peony breeder...
to produce a temporary "environment in process" by painting various surfaces at the construction site of a high-rise in Times Square—from the building's skeleton (Daphnis), to the surrounding plywood scaffolding, to construction workers' shoes and toolboxes.
Tania commented in her writings about the difficulty of being a woman artist who painted geometric abstractions. In one unpublished autobiographical text she writes, "My paintings were 'too large for a woman,' said the New York Times ...I painted like a man... I guess I was supposed to paint flowers."
Select Exhibitions
- Creative Gallery, New York, 1951
- Albert Landry Gallery, New York, 1959 (Including: "Waters Can Be Islands, No. 3")
- Albert Landry Gallery, New York, 1961 (complementary paintings, cardboard collages, and largescale environments)
- Albert Landry Gallery, New York, 1962
- "Tania," Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, 1963 (Including: "Look Me Over," collage)
- Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, 1963 (Featured work: "SG7," painting/collage)
-
- with Milton AveryMilton AveryMilton Avery was an American modern painter. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City.-Biography:...
, James BrooksJames Brooks (painter)James Brooks was an American muralist, abstract painter and winner of the Logan Medal of the Arts. Brooks was a friend of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner on Eastern Long Island. In 1947 he married artist Charlotte Park...
, Stuart DavisStuart Davis (painter)Stuart Davis , was an early American modernist painter. He was well known for his jazz influenced, proto pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, bold, brash, and colorful as well as his ashcan pictures in the early years of the 20th century.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia to Edward Wyatt...
, Jane Freilicher, Adolph GottliebAdolph GottliebAdolph Gottlieb was an American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor and graphic artist.-Biography:Gottlieb was born in New York to Jewish parents. From 1920-1921 he studied at the Art Students League of New York, after which he traveled in France and Germany for a year...
, Grace HartiganGrace HartiganGrace Hartigan was an American Abstract Expressionist painter of the New York School in the 1950s.-Biography and early career:...
, Ellsworth KellyEllsworth KellyEllsworth Kelly is an American painter and sculptor associated with Hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and the Minimalist school. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing the simplicity of form found similar to the work of John McLaughlin. Kelly often employs bright colors to...
, Louise Nevelson, Ben ShahnBen ShahnBen Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...
, Hedda SterneHedda SterneHedda Sterne was an artist best remembered as the only woman in a group of Abstract Expressionists known as "The Irascibles" which consisted of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and others...
, Esteban VicenteEsteban VicenteEsteban Vicente Pérez , was an American painter born in Turégano, Spain. He was one of the first generation of New York School abstract expressionists.-Early life:...
, and others- "Tania: Color Structures," Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, 1964
- Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, 1964 (Featured work: "S Begins," wood sculpture)
- "Formalists" at the Washington Gallery of Modern ArtWashington Gallery of Modern ArtThe Washington Gallery of Modern Art was a short-lived gallery promoting contemporary art near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC, USA, during the 1960s. Its collection of 153 works was purchased by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in 1968 for $110,000...
, 1963 (Featured work: "Exp," collage)
- with Josef AlbersJosef AlbersJosef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, Will BarnetWill BarnetWill Barnet is an American artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds.-Biography:...
, Nassos DaphnisNassos DaphnisNassos Daphnis was a Greek born American abstract painter and tree peony breeder...
, Ellsworth KellyEllsworth KellyEllsworth Kelly is an American painter and sculptor associated with Hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and the Minimalist school. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing the simplicity of form found similar to the work of John McLaughlin. Kelly often employs bright colors to...
, Agnes MartinAgnes MartinAgnes Bernice Martin was an American abstract painter, often referred to as a minimalist; Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist.She won a National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998....
, Ad ReinhardtAd ReinhardtAdolph Frederick Reinhardt was an Abstract painter active in New York beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists and was a part of the movement centered around the Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as Abstract Expressionism...
, Frank StellaFrank StellaFrank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, and others.- "Using Walls" Special Exhibition at The Jewish Museum, New York, 1970
- The Museum featured a plywood mural by Tania on its façade for the length of the exhibition
- "Painting for City Walls," Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1969
- "Artists of the Hamptons Paintings & Sculpture," Auction to Benefit Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY, 1975 (Featured work: "4 Pyramids Red," painting)
- with Perle FinePerle FinePerle Fine was among the most prominent female artists associated with American Abstract Expressionism.-Biography:Perle Fine was born in Boston, MA, in 1908. Her interest in art started at early age. In her early twenties she moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League with Kimon...
, Adolph GottliebAdolph GottliebAdolph Gottlieb was an American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor and graphic artist.-Biography:Gottlieb was born in New York to Jewish parents. From 1920-1921 he studied at the Art Students League of New York, after which he traveled in France and Germany for a year...
, Howard KanovitzHoward KanovitzHoward Kanovitz was a pioneering painter in the Photorealist and Hyperrealist Movements, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in response to the abstract art movement. - Life :...
, Elaine de KooningElaine de KooningElaine de Kooning was an Abstract Expressionist, Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era and editorial associate for Art News magazine...
, Willem de KooningWillem de KooningWillem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
, Lee KrasnerLee KrasnerLee Krasner was an influential abstract expressionist painter in the second half of the 20th century. On October 25, 1945, she married artist Jackson Pollock, who was also influential in the Abstract Expressionism movement....
, Ibram LassawIbram LassawIbram Lassaw is an American sculptor, known for nonobjective construction in brazed metals.-Biography:Lassaw was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Russian émigré parents, he went to the U.S. in 1921. His family settled in Brooklyn, New York. He became a US citizen in 1928...
, John Opper, Ray ParkerRay Parker (painter)Raymond Parker was born in 1922 and he died in 1990. He was known as an Abstract expressionist painter who also is associated with Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction...
, Ray Prohaska, Syd Solomon, Saul SteinbergSaul SteinbergSaul Steinberg was a Romanian-born American cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his work for The New Yorker.-Biography:...
, Hedda SterneHedda SterneHedda Sterne was an artist best remembered as the only woman in a group of Abstract Expressionists known as "The Irascibles" which consisted of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and others...
, Esteban VicenteEsteban VicenteEsteban Vicente Pérez , was an American painter born in Turégano, Spain. He was one of the first generation of New York School abstract expressionists.-Early life:...
, Andy WarholAndy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, and others.- "Vaclav Vytlacil: Paintings and Constructions from 1930," featuring works by Vytlacil and his students, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey, 1975–76
- with Louise BourgeoisLouise BourgeoisLouise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...
, Robert RauschenbergRobert RauschenbergRobert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
, Tony SmithTony Smith (sculptor)Tony Smith was an American sculptor, visual artist, architectural designer, and a noted theorist on art. He is often cited as a pioneering figure in American Minimalist sculpture.-Education:...
, Cy TwomblyCy TwomblyEdwin Parker "Cy" Twombly, Jr. was an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors...
, and others.- Solo retrospective at Jack Gallery, New York, 1978
- with Milton Avery
Collections
Tania's works can be found in the following public collections:- Albright College, Reading, PA
- Barnard College, New York
- Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Morgan State College, Baltimore
- New York University, New York
- Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
- Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY
She also designed doors for a Torah ark (1966–67) that is still in use at the White Street Synagogue (or Synagogue for the Arts) in New York.
Published Resources
In order of publication date:- Dore Ashton, "Art: An Image Elaborated," New York Times (October 7, 1959)
- Donald JuddDonald JuddDonald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
, "Tania" (review), Arts Magazine 38, no. 6 (March 1964), 70 [Reprinted in Donald Judd, Complete Writings, 1959-1975 (Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, 2005)] - Fred W. McDarrah, The Artist's World in Pictures. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1961
- Mel BochnerMel BochnerMel Bochner is an American conceptual artist. Mr. Bochner received his BFA in 1962 and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in 2005 from the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University...
, "Tania" (review), Arts Magazine 40, no. 5 (March 1966), 68-69 - Harold C. Schonberg, “Someone There Is Who Loves a Wall," New York Times (Sunday, May 31, 1970), Real Estate section page 1 page 2
- Dore Ashton et al., Using Walls (Outdoors) The Jewish Museum (May 13-June 21, 1970), Exhibition Catalogue
- Dore Ashton. New York. London: Thames and Hudson, 1972
- Robert A.M. Stern et al., New York 1960: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Second World War and the Bicentennial, Monacelli, 1997
Assorted Trivia
- Tania and her former husband Shepherd Schreiber owned one of the first "black paintings" by Ad ReinhardtAd ReinhardtAdolph Frederick Reinhardt was an Abstract painter active in New York beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists and was a part of the movement centered around the Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as Abstract Expressionism...
, which they received as a gift from the artist, but later sold it.
- The couple also commissioned a piece of music from the composer Stefan WolpeStefan WolpeStefan Wolpe was a German-born composer.-Life:Wolpe was born in Berlin. He attended the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory from the age of fourteen, and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1920-1921. He studied composition under Franz Schreker and was also a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni...
, also a friend of theirs: "In Two Parts for Six Players," March 1962.
- The Brooklyn-based wallpaper designers "Paper Mills" features a line of Tania-inspired wallpapers.
- Rather to Tania's chagrin, the Enjay Chemical Company used photographs (by Joel-Peter WitkinJoel-Peter WitkinJoel-Peter Witkin is an American photographer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses , and various outsiders such as dwarfs, transsexuals, hermaphrodites, and physically deformed people...
) of Tania's walls and those of her City Walls colleagues in a 1971 advertisement for paint, along with the slogan: "Is urban renewal a coat of paint?"
- An image of the Times Square construction scaffolding that Tania painted in collaboration with Nassos Daphnis in 1972 as part of the Arlen Realty project appears in the background of a stock news photograph of workers striking that was used on the cover of the book City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America by Dennis R. Judd & Todd Swanstrom (Longman, 5th ed., 2005)
- A 2010 article in the New York Times on "Living in NoHo" cites Tania's wall at Mercer & 3rd Sts. as a neighborhood staple: "a giant origami-like mural soars above a Gristedes on West Third Street."