1970s Large Abstract Expressionist Painting "Coming Upon the Certainty" by Frederick Terna

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This large scale Abstract Expressionist painting is entitled "Coming Upon The Certainty" by Austrian-born, Brooklyn artist Frederick Terna. The canvas … Read more This large scale Abstract Expressionist painting is entitled "Coming Upon The Certainty" by Austrian-born, Brooklyn artist Frederick Terna. The canvas is signed and dated 1977. The painting is acrylic and aggregates on canvas - aggregates such as folded canvas and pebbles to create a brutalist texture. The painting is recessed in a wood frame trimmed in a minimal brass-tone metal.

Fred Terna (October 8, 1923 – December 8, 2022) was a Holocaust survivor and painter living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Terna was born in Vienna, and lived in Prague from 1926-1940. From 1941-1945, he was an inmate in German concentration camps, among them Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and Dachau. Terna moved to Paris in 1946 and informally studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and the Academie Julien, where he was inspired by the work of the Cubists and post-Impressionists.

After eventually settling in New York in 1952, Terna elaborated on the prevailing modes of Abstract Expressionism with a personal style that infused textural elements into his compositions. Using folded canvas, sand, and pebbles, Terna sought to activate the tactile senses, layering fields of depth and creating visual tricks. Terna’s canvases seek to address the psychological space of trauma, often incorporating the charged symbols of chimneys and ash to abstract effect.

Over the course of his 60 year career, Terna lectured extensively and exhibited his work in numerous solo and group shows. His work is included in a variety of private and public collections including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; The Albertina Collection, Vienna, AT; The Ghetto Fighters’ House, Western Galilee, IL and Yad Vashem Museum, Jerusalem. See less