biography of Knut MERRILD (1894-1954)

Birth place: Odum, Jutland, Denmark

Death place: Copenhagen, Denmark

Addresses: Los Angeles, CA, 1923-on

Profession: Painter, graphic artist, sculptor, designer, writer

Studied: Arts & Crafts Sch., Royal Acad. FA, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Exhibited: Mus. New Mexico, Santa Fe, 1923 (solo); S. Indp. A., 1924; Pasadena AI, 1932; LACMA, 1934-44, 1965 (solo); Laguna Beach AA, 1935 (solo); Hollywood Gal. Mod. Art, 1935 (solo); Calif.-Pac. Expo, San Diego, CA, 1935; MoMA, 1936-42; Stanley Rose Gal., Los Angeles, 1935-36; SFMA, 1935, 1937 (solo); BM, 1936, 1939, 1943; GGE 1939; AIC, 1940, 1947; WMAA, 1941, 1946, 1949; AFA, 1942; Circle Gal., Hollywood, CA, 1944; AIC, 1947; Long Beach Mus., 1964; Hirschl & Adler Gal., NYC, 1998 (Surrealism exh.).

Member: Am. Artists Congress (founder, Los Angeles branch, 1936); AAPL; Calif. WCS

Work: MoMA; AIC; Brooklyn Mus. Art; PMA; LACMA; San Diego FA Soc.; Pomona Gal. ; Arts & Crafts Mus., Copenhagen.

Comments: After expulsion from the Royal Acad., Merrild painted in a cubist style in the 1920s, but by the mid 1930s had become one of the leading proponents of the Surrealist movement in California. In 1940, he invented "flux painting" ó a drip action technique that Jackson Pollock would make famous years later. Auth.: A Poet and Two Painters, (a memoir of D.H. Lawrence, with foreword by Aldous Huxley; London, 1938; NYC, 1939).

Sources: WW53; Hughes, Artists in California, 375; P&H Samuels, 322.; American Abstract Art, 192