biography of Carl Robert HOLTY (1900-1973)

Birth place: Freiburg, Germany

Addresses: Milwaukee (1901-20); NYC (1920-26) Munich (1926); Switz. (1927-30); Paris (1935); NYC (1935-on)

Profession: Abstract painter, writer, teacher

Studied: AIC, 1919; Parsons Sch. Des., NYC; NAD with H. Bolton Jones, 1920-21; Hans Hofmann Sch., Munich, Germany, 1926.

Exhibited: CI, 1946; WMAA, 1944, 1945; Kootz Gal., 1945; New Art Circle, 1944; Nierendof Gal., 1938; Audubon Artists, 1945; AIC, 1936, 1947; WFNY, 1939; Univ. Illinois, 1948 (prize); PAFA, 1947, 1951, 1954, 1960; Corcoran Gal. biennials, 1949-63; "American Painting Today," MMA, 1950; "Abstract Painting & Sculpture in America," MoMA, 1951; "The 1930"s: Painting in New York," Poindexter Gal., NYC, 1957; "The 1930s: Painting & Sculpture in America," WMAA, 1968; City Univ. New York, 1972 (retrospective). Awards: Ford Found. Award, 1962; A. Crispo Gal., NYC, 1974 (solo)

Member: Abstract-Création, Paris, 1930s; Am. Abstract Artists (chmn, 1938); Audubon Artists

Work: WMAA; Guggenheim Mus.; Addison Gal. Am. Art, Andover, MA; J.B. Speed Art Mus., Louisville, KY; James A. Michener Coll., Univ. Tex, Austin; Milwaukee AI; Butler IA, Youngstown, OH; Minneapolis IA; Hirshhorn Mus., Wash, DC

Comments: Geometric abstractionist painter. He traveled extensively in Europe and North Africa from 1926 to 1935. In Paris, Delaunay sponsored him to join the Abstract-CrÈation group in 1932. Teaching: ASL. Auth.: "A Memoir of Mondrian," Arts (Sept, 1957); The Mechanics of Creativity: A Memoir, Leonardo (1968); co-auth, with Romare Bearden, The Painter's Mind (Grove, 1969).

Sources: WW73; Diamond, Thirty-Five American Modernists p.25; American Abstract Art, 187; 300 Years of American Art, 890; Baigell, Dictionary; Falk, Exh. Record Series.