artists

CHARLES SCHUCKER
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An American abstract expressionist, color-field painter, Schucker is known for his extensive body of “poured-paintings” and long-running association with painter Morris Louis, the Whitney Museum, and the Pratt Institute. His brightly hued canvases, unique shaped paintings and psychological use of color exemplified his personal exploration and artistic development within the Abstract Expressionism movement.

Following temporary work in the Works Progress Administration in Chicago, Schucker moved to New York in 1936, taught briefly at NYU before teaching at the Pratt Institute, where he became Professor Emeritus. A Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953 and a solo show at the Whitney marked early success for the young artist. As a painter, Schucker applied thinned paint with a controlled, mechanized pouring system resulting in fields of raw canvas punctuated by bold colors.

A prodigious painter, he produced numerous large canvases, stretched, draped, contoured, even joined. Often aligned with Helen Frankenthaler and his friend and classmate Morris Louis, his eight Whitney Biennial exhibitions positioned him alongside notable American artist including Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hoffman, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Georgia O’Keeffe, & Jackson Pollock. He was in national shows that toured the Walker, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and City Art Museum, St. Louis. He is in the notable collections of Art Institute of Chicago, The Whitney, The Brooklyn Museum & The Pratt Institute, among others.