Milton Resnick

Born in Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, Resnick was associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement that dominated the New York avant-garde of the 1950s. His gestural style in the vein of De Kooning developed into a form of lyrical abstraction characterized by dense, short, calligraphic strokes and heavy impasto. The atmospheric effect of his large, allover compositions called forth comparisons with Monet's late paintings. In the late 1980s, Resnick, who by then was working mostly in acrylic and gouache on paper, began introducing figures in his compositions. Like ghostly apparitions they emerge from the dense brushwork, unmoored, loosely connected to each other through hints at traditional subjects such as the Annunciation or the Crucifixion.