1980s
Roman IX (Q1-81 #1), 1981, Oil on canvas, 95 x 50 in. (241.3 x 127 cm) Collection of the Estate of Jack Tworkov, New York (CR169)
Dedicated to the tradition of painting, Tworkov lives out the final few years of his life pursuing a purity in painting defined by meaty gestural marks that transition into the meditative. Marks that define spatial illusion in terms of hue and density, as overlapping rectangles fold and unfold across the canvas. Throughout his career, Tworkov manages to maintain a tenuous balance between surface and illusionism, calligraphy and geometry; between sensation of spontaneity and freedom and coolly contemplative detachment. “Above all else,” Tworkov states, “I distinguish between painting and pictures (between Cézanne and Picasso). Where I have to choose between them, I choose painting. If I have to choose between painting and ideas, I choose painting; between painting and every form of theater—I choose painting.”
Exhibition highlights include: Solo exhibitions: Rhode Island School of Design (’80), Solomon R. Guggenheim (‘82), Nancy Hoffman Gallery (‘82) and Mint Museum (‘82). Notable posthumous exhibitions include: American Academy of Arts and Letters (’83), Provincetown Art Association and Museum (’83), Adams-Middleton Gallery, Dallas (’85), and retrospective exhibitions at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art (’87), and Boston College Museum of Art (‘94).
