JACK YOUNGERMAN

chronology

1951 First one-man exhibition at Galerie Arnaud, Paris. Meets the artist, Francois Morellet, with whom he develops a life-long friendship.

​

Summer, 1953, visits newly opened caves at Lascaux (Dordogne); impressed by freshness, immediacy and power of their animal imagery.

​

1954-55, visits Henri Seyrig in Beirut, where he is Director of Institut Francais d'Archeologie. Travels to Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and throughout the Middle East.

​

In 1954, he meets Peggy Guggenheim and visits her collection in Venice.

He works with architect Michel Ecochard in Beirut on color design for the

French Protestant school. At this time, he begins using freely rendered

organic forms in his compositions which are strongly informed by

positive/negative and figure/ground relationships. These concerns

continue to characterize his work today.

​

His son, Duncan Pierre, is born in 1956. He designs sets for Compagnie

Madeleine Renaud-Jean-Louis Barrault production of Georges Schedhade's

Histoire de Vasco, presented at Theatre Sarah-Bernhardge and Theatre des

Celestins, Paris.

​

In the summer, the art dealer Betty Parsons visits Youngerman's studio in

Paris; encourages him to move to New York City.

​

In December of 1956, he returns to the United States and settles in New York

City. Rents a house near the Battery at Coenties Slip where he lives with his

wife and son. Friends and neighbors include Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns,

Ellsworth Kelly, Fred Mitchell and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1957, Agnes

Martin moves to Coenties Slip.

​

In 1957, he is impressed by the use of black and treatment of mass in the

paintings of Clyfford Still and Robert Motherwell. Establishes a friendship

with Frederick Kiesler.

​

In March, 1958, he makes his American debut with first of seven one-man

exhibitions at Betty Parsons Gallery, New York.

1958: L-R Delphine Seyrig, Robert Indiana, Duncan Youngerman, Ellsworth

Kelly, Jack Youngerman and Agnes Martin on roof of No. 1-3 Coenties Slip