Alfonso Ossorio

Alfonso Ossorio has made a unique contribution to the history of modern art in America. As an immigrant to the United States just a decade before World War Two, he carved his own pathway to success, creating lasting friendships with important avant-garde artists like Jackson Pollock and Jean Dubuffet. Throughout his career, Ossorio actively pursued his own unique style combining aspects of Abstract Expressionism, Art Brut and Assemblage, unafraid to experiment with diverse mediums, with a rejection of the conventional use of oil paint.

Table of Contents

• I. BIOGRAPHY
• II. AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK
• III. CHRONOLOGY
• IV. COLLECTIONS
• V. EXHIBITIONS
• VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• VII. WORKS FOR SALE BY THIS ARTIST

I. BIOGRAPHY

Alfonso Angel Ossorio was born on August 2, 1916 in Manila Bay, on the island of Luzon, Philippines. He grew up in an affluent family; his parents Maria Paz Yangco and Miguel Jose Ossorio had a sugar refinery, among other investments, on the island of Negros. He was schooled in strict Catholic boarding schools in England for several years before his arrival in the United States in 1930. As a young man, he was always surrounded by visual imagery, which would influence his artistic thinking for the rest of his life. His works display a visual struggle with Christian motifs and life and death themes. With his strong Catholic upbringing, he struggled with being a homosexual. His works challenge the viewer to find meaning in a vastly changing time period when scientific theories overshadowed his austere religious background.

After his arrival in the United States, he continued his studies at Portsmouth Priory in Providence, Rhode Island. Upon receiving his American citizenship in 1933, he continued his studies at Harvard University in 1934. Four years later, Ossorio completed his art history thesis at Harvard University. His thesis, “Spiritual influences on the Visual images of Christ,” maps the modification of Christian imagery and iconography compared to social changes in the human understanding of Christianity dating from the earliest Christian era to the Romanesque period.

While at Harvard, he was first introduced to what came to be known as “primitive art.” He also spent hours in the library researching medieval art and illuminated manuscripts. He would spend his summers in Sussex, England in artist Eric Gill’s workshop. Gill encouraged Ossorio to look through illuminated manuscripts like the Book of Kells and practice creating his own wood engravings and illuminations.

Ossorio was married for a short time in the early 1940’s. The Ossorios spent time in Taos, New Mexico. During this period, he painted morose imagery reflecting on his confused state; a visual style that became an unchanging part of his opus.

In 1943, he joined the US army to be a medical illustrator in support of the war effort. His job was to observe and draw surgical procedures and images for others to learn from. Ossorio produced these drawings with an intense fascination with human anatomy. His fixation with the grotesque shocked many who saw his illustrations. He would often go back later and make art works based on these medical illustrations.

It wasn’t until 1949, after seeing a Jackson Pollock exhibition at Betty Parson’s New York gallery, that Ossorio felt a connection to another artist with a similar mindset. He admired Pollock for radically challenging the traditions that society had previously placed on art making in America. The two became good friends and with Pollock’s encouragement, Ossorio went to Paris in 1950 to meet Jean Dubuffet, who would ultimately influence Ossorio’s work. His tendency towards morbid imagery came full circle while working with Dubuffet. The Art Brut or art of the insane criminals and children that he came in contact with helped him seek meaning in a world that he felt had been covered up by social constraints. Because of the free expressive nature of this art making, he found meaning in the art of the children who created spontaneous, colorful creations with true innocence and fervor and the art of the insane criminals who created art without tradition or concern for social order and humanity.

In 1950, Ossorio returned to the Philippines to paint a mural in the Chapel of St. Joseph the Worker on the island of Negros. The island had gone through major destruction and was left desolate after the WWII. The chapel was a memorial commissioned by his family, who owned a sugar refinery there. He spent eight months here painting a cosmic Last Judgment scene.

Ossorio eventually moved from painting to Assemblage. Some of his most well-known Assemblage works are titled Congregations. The term was originally applied to one of his assemblages in 1965 in order to highlight the assortment of unique parts that were combined with one another to create unity and harmony. His Catholic background is a clear connection to this title. In a tape recorded interview, Ossorio stated that he found, “God present in everything…a little waste piece of plastic or a bone is just as much alive as the abstract concept of God, which is meaningless unless it is incarnated.” His works engaged his life-long struggle with themes of life and death, homosexuality, science and religion.

In 1951, he purchased a sixty-acre estate on Georgia Pond in East Hampton, New York called “The Creeks”. He became a connoisseur and collector throughout his career. Most of the works he brought here included the entire Dubuffet Art Brut collection in 1952. At “The Creeks”, he spent the remainder of his life focusing his artistic energy on the creation of sculpture and botanical gardens, which became well-known world-wide for its collection of conifer trees. Alfonso Ossorio died at his New York Hamptons Estate in 1990.

In 1994, the Ossorio Foundation was established by Edward F. Dragon to protect the legacy of Ossorio’s estate. This non-profit organization has dedicated itself to exploring and uncovering aspects of Ossorio’s life and career through conservation and exhibition.

II. AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

Ossorio’s earliest works were hand printed, wood engravings based on his own poetry. These works show his interest in contrasting static and rhythmic lines in order to balance the composition. He abstracted the human forms in a primitive, primordial nature, which foreshadows his later interest in primitive artifacts during his studies at Harvard University and his fascination with Dubuffet’s Art Brut collection.

Early in his career, he enjoyed working with most media, except oil painting. He experimented with sketches, watercolors, engravings and sculpture. Alfonso Ossorio’s ability to stimulate and challenge the viewer with his empathetic nature and acceptance of the human condition can be seen through his art.

His portraits, which are mainly watercolors and inks on paper, show his interest in the physical features and inner spirit of the sitter. He captures each line and wrinkle of the face, creates wispy, abstracted hair and paints vivid details of the eyes to add a realistic, yet dream-like quality to the work.

Although his works pay tribute to the Surrealism, the mangled bodies and horrific surgeries that he had seen as a medical illustrator during WWII were his main source of influence. His anatomical renderings with their distorted, broken limbs can be compared to Salvador Dali’s work. Ossorio, like Dali, enlarged figural body parts into twisted and contorted forms that almost appear to ooze onto the surface of his work. Despite these similarities, Ossorio explained in an interview with historian Judith Wolfe at The Creeks in 1980 that these works were in fact not surreal. To him, they are careful studies and purposeful descriptions of how he actually viewed the objects he was painting.

In 1947, he started to add wax to his watercolors and ink drawings in order to create a dense murkiness of layered colors. By 1949, his technique further developed with influences from his new artist friend Jackson Pollock. He began to create dynamic environments of twisted polychromatic colors. However, unlike the organized layers of paint that Pollock constructed in his drip paintings, Ossorio’s technique was much less controlled. His process was spontaneous with fierce strokes of color inventing completely abstract compositions with no single focus.

Upon his return in 1950 to the Philippines to paint a mural for the Chapel of St. Joseph the worker, his artistic vision developed even further. Here, he created a Last Judgment scene using sharp, stylized figures with organic, wavy lines and geometric forms similar to those from his first wood engravings. His scene combines the classic Philippine folk-art traditions with a more contemporary vision. He used scorching reds and fierce oranges to create a color palette that stresses the importance of Christ’s bleeding wounds, which are enlarged to larger than life-size. Ossorio was very sensitive to the wounds of Christ and viewed such injuries as symbols of a world unable to heal.

Ossorio’s pre-occupation with imagery of body parts, bones and skulls continued into his Assemblage works. He used plastic figures and real animal bones to create turbulent compositions that once again reflect the nature of physical objects and their ephemeral place in the universe. All the aforementioned imagery culminates into his most famous assemblage works known as Congregations.

In his Congregations, Ossorio created his own visual language using a combination of found objects like shells, animal bones, horns, antlers, wood chips, rope and glass eyes which make a connection to themes like life and death. He combined these found objects with various media-like ink and wax on paper, oils, plaster, canvas, enamels, woods, and/or other various materials. Though made up of unlikely material combinations, his Assemblages are balanced through their symmetry and clearly thought out color patterns. In an exhibition catalogue on Ossorio’s early works at the Whitney Museum of American Art , Curator Klaus Kertess wrote about his own eyewitness experience of Ossorio’s Congregations. He states that they are a “visual interdependence of chaos and order.”

One would often find Ossorio in his studio either standing over an un-stretched canvas or lying on the floor making swift paint strokes and thick impasto marks. Throughout his entire career, his drawings and assemblages continued to evidence his fascination with finding the divine in nature. Though imagery of both death and birth are present in many of his works, one is never favored over the other. An unusual balance is always present.

Ossorio spent most of his career trying to find a resolution between his sexuality and his Catholic upbringing. In a world that was barely beginning to accept visual interpretations of such things, his open expression of such a struggle for identity showed an enormous display of courage and passion that continues to live on today through his art.

III. CHRONOLOGY

1916 Ossorio, Alfonso Angel born Aug 2, in Manila Bay, Philippines to: Maria Paz Yangco and Miguel Jose Ossorio; the fourth of six sons.

1924-30 Attends St. Richard’s Catholic preparatory school in Malvern, Worcestershire.

1930 Arrives in the United States, continues schooling at St. Richard’s, Portsmouth Priory, Rhode Island.

1933-34 Summers in Ditchling, Sussex with Eric Gill at St. Dominic’s Press.

1938 Graduates with B.A. from Harvard Univ, Cambridge, MA; Paints mural for Hagerty house in Cohasset, MA; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.

1939 Receives his American citizenship.

1940-42 Marries Bridget Hubrecht, shares a home in Taos, NM.

1941 First solo exhibition, Wakefield Gallery, New York

1943 Artist for US army at Fort Devon’s, MA.

1945 Solo exhibition at Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York.

1946 Discharged from service in the army.

1949 Meets Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Spends the summer with them in East Hampton, NY. Travels to Paris in the fall to meet and work with Jean Dubuffet per Jackson Pollock.

1950 Returned to Philippines to paint the fresco for Chapel of St. Joseph the Worker. Stays there for ten months before visiting New York briefly, and then travels to Paris.

1951 Purchases “The Creeks” in East Hampton, New York; Jean Dubuffet publishes Pentures Initiatiques d’Alfonso Ossorio.

1952 Ossorio brings Dubuffet’s Art Brut collection to “The Creeks”.

1953, 1956 Solo show at Betty Parsons Gallery.

1956-1958 Curator for a series of exhibits at the Executive House, New York; “Vision of Man” exhibition at MoMA, New York.

1957-1960 Co-founds Signa Gallery in East Hampton. Curator for summer exhibitions including works by Pollock, Rothko, David Smith, De Kooning and Kline.

1958-59 Solo shows at the Betty Parsons Gallery, NY

1960 Solo exhibition at Galerie Stadler, Paris

1961 Solo exhibition at Cordier & Warren Gallery, New York; Participates in “The Art of Assemblage” at MoMA; Solo exhibition at Galerie Cordier-Stadler, Frankfurt; Solo exhibition at Galerie Stadler, Paris.

1962 Exhibits collection of L’Art Brut at the Cordier & Warren Gallery before traveling back to Paris to meet up with Dubuffet.

1963Solo show at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, NY

1964 Participates in documenta III, Kassel.

1965 Solo show at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, NY

1968 Dada, Surrealism and their Heritage at MoMA, NY, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA and the Art Institute of Chicago.

1967-69 Solo show at Cordier & Esktrom Gallery, NY

1970 Begins to collect sculpture and work on garden at “The Creeks”, East Hampton, NY.

1972 Solo show at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, NY; solo exhibition at Berkeley Center, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT.

1974 Solo exhibition at The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT.

1980 Ossorio becomes ill, starts spending most of him time actively working on his garden and sculpture collection at The Creeks, East Hampton, NY.

1984 Publishes a book of intaglio prints with poems by Dr. Lewis Thomas.

1985 Creates prints with Hudson River Press.

1987 Participates in group show at Whitney Museum, NY.

1989 Heart surgery; during recovery, he works on a series of prints entitled “The Recovery Drawings”.

1990 Died in East Hampton, 75 years old.

IV. COLLECTIONS

Albertina Museum, Austria

Butler Institute of American Art, OH

Centre Georges Pompidou, France

Columbus Museum, GA

Heckscher Museum, NY

L’Art Brut Museum, Switzerland

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, NY

Museo National Centre de Arte Reina Sofia, Spain

Museum of Modern Art, NY

New York University Collection/Grey Art Gallery, NY

Ossorio Foundation, Southampton, NY

Parrish Art Museum, NY

Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

Phillips Collection, DC

Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, MA

San Diego Museum of Art, CA

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY

Wadsworth Atheneum, CT

Whitney Museum of American Art, NY

Yale University Art Gallery, CT

V. EXHIBITIONS

1941 Solo Show at Betty Parson’s Wakefield Gallery, NY

1943 Solo Show at Wakefield Gallery, NY

1945 Solo exhibition at Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York.

1951 Solo exhibition at Studio Paul Facchetti; Solo show at Betty Parsons gallery, NY.

1953 Solo show at Betty Parsons Gallery.

1956 Solo show at Betty Parsons Gallery.

1958 “Vision of Man” show at MoMA, New York.

1960 Solo exhibition at Galerie Stadler, Paris

1961 Solo exhibition at Cordier & Warren Gallery, New York; Participates in “The Art of Assemblage” at MoMA; Solo exhibition at Galerie Cordier-Stadler, Frankfurt; Solo exhibition at Galerie Stadler, Paris.

1962 Exhibits collection of L’Art Brut at the Cordier & Warren Gallery.

1963 Solo show at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, NY

1965 Solo show at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, NY

1967-69 Solo show at Cordier & Esktrom Gallery, NY

1972 Solo show at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, NY; Solo exhibition at Berkeley Center, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT.

1973 Garden sculptures by Ossorio exhibited by Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY.

1974 Solo exhibition at The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT; solo show at Berkeley Center, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT.

1976 Group show at Renwick Gallery, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC.

1977 Group show 30 Years of American Art: 1945-1975, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.

1980 Solo exhibition at Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY.

1982 Group show The Americans; The Collage, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX.

1984 Solo show Bioscapes. Oscarsson Hood Gallery, NY.

1980 Solo show. Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY

1988 “The Garden” exhibition at “The Creeks” East Hampton, NY.

1992 Zabriskie Gallery, Paris, France

1997 Alfonso Ossorio, The Shingle Figures, 1962-1963. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, NY; Facets of the Figure: A Spectrum of 20th Century American Art. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, Gallery I, NY.

2000 From the Molecular to the Galactic, The Art of Max Ernst and Alfonso Ossorio. Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

2001 Synergy: Alfonso Ossorio & Jackson Pollock 1950-1951. Ossorio Foundation, Southampton, NY; Road: Alfonso Ossorio’s Response to Jackson Pollock’s Death. Ossorio Foundation, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center.

2004-2006 Eye Contact: Painting and Drawing in American Art. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, NY.

VI. Bibliography

1. 1. AskArt.com. Site visited 10/22/2006.
2. 2. Friedman, B.H. Alfonso Ossorio. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, NY. 1965.
3. 3. Close, Leslie Rose. “The Garden.” Alfonso Ossorio. The Parrish Art Museum. August 17- September 18, 1997.
4. 4. Kertess, Klaus. “Congregations.” Alfonso Ossorio. The Parrish Art Museum. August 17- September 18, 1997.
5. 5. Kramer, Trudy C. “Foreword.”Alfonso Ossorio. The Parrish Art Museum. August 17- September 18, 1997.
6. 6. Landau, Ellen G. “Behind the Congregations.” Alfonso Ossorio. The Parrish Art Museum. August 17- September 18, 1997.
7. 7. Wolfe, Judith. Alfonso Ossorio 1940-1980. Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY. Exhibition dates: July 19th-August 17th, 1980. Hampton Press, Inc.
8. 8. Dallow, Jessica and Colleen Thomas. From the Molecular to the Galactic. The Art of Max Ernst and Alfonso Ossorio. Ackland Art Museum. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2000.