(Gainesville, Ga) Need some inspiration? Visit Sellars Gallery in the Simmons Visual Arts Center. Check out the John Heliker exhibition.The exhibition encompasses over 60 years worth of artwork including paintings and drawings. John Heliker was born in Yonkers, New York in 1909 to a farm family. His first solo exhibitions were at the Maynard Walker Gallery in New York from 1936-40.
Heliker was mostly known for the abstract expressionism in his work. His pieces focuses on subjective emotions and spontaneous creative ideas combined with a little reality and dreams. His style has influences from Italy. He adapted a highly personal and expressive approach to drawing through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). His paintings were built with layers of lines almost geometrically transparent. He created them with quick stabbing brush works and pieces of drawn lines.
Heliker lived to be 91. During his time he was a professor and versatile painter for nearly seven decades. He taught for 27 years at Columbia University, was a founding member of the New York Studio School and taught at the Art Students League and Parsons-New School. Some of his art students included Charles Cajori, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Jonathan Silver, Robert La Hotan and Angelo Ippolito. Also among them were historian Karen Wilkin and critic Jed Perl.
To find out more about John Heliker and his exhibition visit: http://galleries.brenau.edu/category/exhibitions/ .
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