Still, Clyfford

Still, Clyfford, 1904–80, American painter, b. Grandin, N.Dak. A brilliant painter, he was one of the founders of abstract expressionism, although never one of the style's best-known practitioners. The reclusive Still was a pioneer in the use of the mural-sized canvas. He painted vast, thick curtains of intense color, jaggedly torn to reveal other equally intense color areas. His work combines the gesture of abstract expressionism with a reliance on the sensations of pure color typical of color-field painting. Still's first one-man show was held in 1947, and his work is represented in New York's Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many other collections. A major museum (2011) devoted entirely to his work is located in Denver.

See catalog of his work (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979).

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