Microcosms: Ruth Abrams, Abstract Expressionist

August 12, 2012 - April 21, 2013
Selz Foundation Gallery

Ruth Abrams, a painter of the New York School who remained closely associated through much of her career with artists of the Abstract Expressionist movement, was fascinated with art's capacity to express key aspects of the human condition and to convey the dynamics of space in nature and the cosmos. This exhibition, the first solo show of the artist's work in a quarter century, features "Microcosms," a striking series of works painted from the 1950s-1970s, each as small as two by three inches, which paradoxically explore notions of infinite space. Also on display are large-scale, richly colored landscapes, abstract portraits, and other work from across Abrams's 40-year career, all from the Museum's own collection.

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Ruth Davidson Abrams, Untitled (from the Microcosms series), 1950s-1970s, oil on paper. Collection of Yeshiva University Museum Gift of the Estate of Ruth Abrams.
Ruth Abrams in her studio.
Ruth Davidson Abrams, Orchard through the window #2, n.d., oil on canvas Collection of Yeshiva University Museum Gift of the Estate of Ruth Abrams.
Ruth Davidson Abrams, Childhood Memory of a Landscape [Fire Island Series], 1980, oil on canvas. Collection of Yeshiva University Museum Gift of the Estate of Ruth Abrams.
Ruth Davidson Abrams, Untitled (from the Microcosms series), 1950s-1970s, oil on paper. Collection of Yeshiva University Museum Gift of the Estate of Ruth Abrams.
Ruth Davidson Abrams, Untitled (from the Microcosms series), 1950s-1970s, oil on paper. Collection of Yeshiva University Museum Gift of the Estate of Ruth Abrams.