Olitski, Jules

Jules Olitski was born on March 27,1922 in Snovsk, Ukraine. Jules Olitski was a Russian-born American painter who was instrumental in the development of the Color Field school. After his father was executed in Russia, his mother and Grandmother moved with the infant to Brooklyn , NY. Olitski showed an early talent for drawing and began taking art classes during his teens. In 1939 he won a scholarship to Pratt Institute in New York. He studied at the National Academy of Design from 1940 to 1942 and also took classes at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design on Manhattan's East Side. After becoming a United States citizen in 1942, he was conscripted into military service for three years during World War II. Although he never served overseas, he lived in Paris from 1949 until 1951 and was able to attend the Ossip Zadkine School and the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere through the educational benefits of the G.I. Bill. His first one-man exhibition was held at the Galerie Huit in 1951. Olitski moved back to New York in 1951 and began studying at New York University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1952 and a Master of Arts in Art Education in 1954. In 1956 he took a position as the head of the Fine Art Division at C.W. Post College of Long Island University, where he taught for seven years. During this time, Olitski began to receive recognition as an artist in New York. He exhibited at Iolas Gallery in 1958, and in 1959 he held his first one-man show in the city at the gallery French & Co., where the renowned critic Clement Greenberg was a consultant. Greenberg became Olitski's steadfast champion and guided his career to its zenith.