Minimalist Abstract by Sacha Kolin (1960s)

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A nicely proportioned abstract oil-on-canvas by French-Jewish émigré painter and sculptor SACHA KOLIN (1911–1981). The piece embodies the graceful scale … Read more A nicely proportioned abstract oil-on-canvas by French-Jewish émigré painter and sculptor SACHA KOLIN (1911–1981). The piece embodies the graceful scale and simplified geometry of early Minimalism, which promoted abstract work stripped of outside association, referring only to itself. Biographer Lisa Thaler chronicled Kolin’s turbulent life and her trajectory through the mid-century art scene of NYC in the 2008 book, Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin. It details Kolin’s brushes with near-success and her unwavering commitment to living beyond her means. Drawing its title from a Kolin painting, Look Up: The Sun is Shining, the book stands as a paean to the artist’s perennial optimism.

SACHA KOLIN (1911–1981) was a gifted, Paris-born painter and sculptor who emerged as a minor player in New York City’s vibrant mid-20th-century art boom. Her work encompassed abstract painting and aeronautically-inspired, Minimalist sculpture. She was born to Ukrainian Jewish parents, Malwina Slobodianiuk and Julius Kolin (ko-LEEN), the latter a mechanical engineering student at Vienna’s Technische Universität who had journeyed to Paris to test his innovative propeller designs at the Laboratoire du Champ-de-Mars, under the supervision of Gustave Eiffel. (His pioneering concepts would find application in aviation and other machinery.) Kolin spent her early years in Vienna, where she studied interior design at the Weiner Kunstgewerbeschule with architect and sculptor Oskar Strnad (1879–1935), as well as sculpture and drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts. She was among the few women allowed to showcase work in the annual exhibitions of the Vienna Secession and the Künstlerhaus.

In 1933, Kolin moved to Paris to study in the atelier of Naoum Aronson (1872–1943), a stone carver for Auguste Rodin who was known principally for his busts of important personages: Beethoven, Pasteur, Tolstoy, Lenin, etc. Kolin’s contemporary sculptures primarily consisted of traditionally expressive busts representing men, women, and children. Her drawings during the period sought to incorporate Rodin’s various techniques for maintaining spontaneity and were characterized by her ability to relate concise yet impactful gestures, a defining feature of her graphic artistry. In 1935, she became the youngest full member of the Nationale Société des Beaux-Arts.

In December 1936, alarmed by the Nazi persecution of Jews in neighboring Germany, Kolin’s affluent family emigrated to the US, establishing their residence in New York City. They opted for prestigious locations in Manhattan, including Essex House and the Esplanade. Within three months, Kolin showcased her inaugural solo exhibition titled “Modern Sculptures and Sketches” at the P.E.D.A.C. Galleries in Rockefeller Center. At the 1940 New York World’s Fair, she was among 42 émigré artists—including notable figures such as Josef Albers, Werner Drewes, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Amédée Ozenfant—featured in the exhibition “New Americans of Friendship House.”

From the 1940s onward, Kolin drew inspiration from Native American lore and iconography. She began to integrate elements of native dance into her flat-plane abstract works. During the 1950s, she hosted a color workshop in her New York studio alongside Bauhaus-trained artist Hannes Beckmann (1909–1977), which led her to explore non-objective artistic styles further. The artworks she produced during this period, particularly her watercolors, are often compared to those of Kandinsky and Klee, while her later calligraphic drawings and painted sculptures bear resemblance to the works of Arp, Calder, and Miró.

In the 1960s, Kolin showcased her Op Art paintings, some of which were produced in quartets of four canvases each. While she was skilled in various media, she identified primarily as a sculptor. Her three-dimensional creations increasingly adopted geometric forms, often featuring a monochromatic palette and centered around the triangle. This triangular motif, along with titles referencing flight, reflects Kolin’s paternal heritage in aeronautics and her personal history as a refugee during wartime. In 1973, Kolin’s monumental aluminum sculpture Drawing in the Sky #1 was installed at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, and it remains on outdoor display to this day.

She was a friend of mail artist Ray Johnson (1927–1995) and an early participant in the New York Correspondance [sic] School. Kolin also joined the Artists Equity Association, League of Present Day Artists (serving as Treasurer in 1954), and the National Association of Women Artists. She was the recipient in 1973 of a Mark Rothko Foundation grant award. Her career history includes over 125 solo and group exhibitions, and her work is included in over 70 public and private art collections both in the US and internationally.

Kolin had expensive tastes in food and fashion, and in her later life, when her artwork failed to sell consistently, she struggled to live well on meager means. She fell into debt, borrowing funds to sustain her lifestyle and support her elderly father, or exchanging her artwork for essential goods. The sheer volume of work she produced and distributed in this manner resulted in a decline in its overall value. During the 1970s, motivated by the Tax Reform Act of 1969, Kolin actively engaged in third-party donations to museums. She would persuade curators to issue letters of intent indicating their interest in acquiring her pieces. Subsequently, she would sell a painting at a reduced price to a wealthy collector, who would then donate it to the museum, benefiting from a tax deduction based on the painting’s full value. This practice helped to establish a midcentury market for art donations to university collections, allowing affluent patrons to enjoy tax advantages. (After Kolin’s death, several artists and collectors were prosecuted for this scam.) Kolin bartered artwork for rent with the landlords of successive grand apartments and, with her two large dogs, turned at least one dwelling into a squalid mess. Perhaps accustomed to posh environs, she chose to have her remains dispatched through the crematoria of Manhattan’s Trinity Church.

Kolin’s artwork has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and it is held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. See less