Jack Tworkov
Abstract Expressionist who walked away from gesture and spent his last twenty years on the grid.
Jack Tworkov was born in Poland in 1900 and emigrated to New York at thirteen. He was part of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, shared a building with Willem de Kooning for years and painted in the gestural manner through the 1950s — and then, unusually among his contemporaries, decided he had had enough of it. From the mid-1960s he built paintings on measured grids and systems, using ruled geometry and counted marks to remove the very spontaneity his generation had made its name on. He was chairman of art at Yale for six years and died in 1982.
The 1950s gestural paintings lead this market, with the later systemic works forming a distinct group that has been steadily reassessed and now attracts serious institutional interest. The two look nothing like each other, and identifying the period is the first task in any valuation. Drawings and works on paper are numerous, and there is a modest print output. The Jack Tworkov estate and the catalogue raisonne project are the references. Works are usually signed and dated on the reverse, frequently with the artist's own inventory number.
If you own a work by Jack Tworkov
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Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.