1930s
Portrait of a Boy, c.1931, Oil on canvas 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm), Collection of the Estate of Jack Tworkov, New York, NY, CR 004
Although he admired the modern painting of Europe, which was growing in reputation in New York, Tworkov never came under the influence of any one artist or school. He begins working on the Federal Arts Project of the WPA (Easel Division) in 1934. It is during this time that he meets artists Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko, among others. Tworkov recalls this period as “an extremely bleak, dreary […] period” of his life. However, he credits the period to galvanizing the New York School. Through a growing sense of comradery and a “absolute rejection of ideology of collective thinking,” Tworkov’s art takes on a very personal visual poetry.
Works from this decade demonstrate a reimagining of Social Realism through a synthesis of Cubism. He begins exhibiting with the Dudensing Gallery in 1932. His first solo exhibition opens at the ACA Gallery on December 31, 1939.
