CARMEN CICERO
(b. 1926)
ARTWORK
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© Carmen Cicero.
Carmen Cicero has re-emerged today as one of the most stimulating and innovative precursors to the neo-expressionist artists of the 1980s. His paintings are heavily influenced by his early years as an abstract expressionist painter, which soon blossomed into intense, vivid figurative expressionist figures as a representation of the socio-cultural arts community developed on the Bowery – New York’s “Skid Row.” The social content of Cicero’s works from the 1970s and 1980s—tackling such subjects as race, crime, and feminism—reveal that he was aware of themes in American culture which are still profoundly significant today. Cicero’s work is turbulent and restless, unapologetic in unmasking the raw expression behind the façade of humanity.
BIOGRAPHY
Carmen Cicero was born in 1926 in Newark, NJ. He attended the local university starting in 1947, later earning an MFA and teaching at Montclair State University, NJ, from 1970 to 2001. His career spans over six decades, originating from his solo exhibition at the historic Peridot Gallery, New York, where he exhibited abstract expressionist paintings through 1969. His early influence arose from studying under Hans Hofmann and Robert Motherwell at Hunter College, New York, along with inspiration from his circle of artists, poets, and jazz musicians. He is also an avid saxophonist with several original jazz compositions. In 1971, Cicero moved to the Bowery after a catastrophic fire destroyed his Englewood, NJ studio and his entire body of work.
Cicero’s artwork is included in the permanent collections of many internationally-renowned institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and he is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
EXHIBITIONS
2019, MAY 28 - JUL 13
WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC
EXHIBITION HISTORY
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 - Battle of the Sexes 1965-1982, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2015 - Carmen Cicero: Early Works: 1970s-1980s, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2012 - Visionary Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2012 - Carmen Cicero: The Visionary Work, curated by William Evaul, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA
2010 - Carmen Cicero: Watercolors, The Shore Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2010 - In the Still of the Night: New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2007 - Things That Happen In the Moonlight: Watercolors, June Kelly Gallery; catalogue
2004 - New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York; catalogue
2001 - Recent Work, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2000 - Carmen Cicero: A Survey of Paintings, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA; catalogue
2000 - Carmen Cicero: Watercolors, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998 - Recent Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
1998 - Paintings and Watercolors, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997 - Long Point Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1995 - Paintings and Watercolors, June Kelly Gallery, New York
1993 - New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
1991 - Montclair State College Art Gallery, Montclair, NJ
1990 - Paintings and Watercolors, June Kelly Gallery, New York
1988 - Paintings, Graham Modern Gallery, New York
1988 - Watercolors, June Kelly Gallery, New York
1987 - Watercolors and Sculpture, Graham Modern Gallery, New York
1986 - Cherrystone Gallery, Wellfleet, MA
1985 - Recent Paintings, Graham Modern Gallery, New York
1984 - Paintings and Drawings, 1975-1984, Graham Modern Gallery, New York
1983 - Art Academy, Museum of Cincinnati, OH
1982 - Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York
1979 - Gurewitsch Gallery, New York
1978 - Dubins Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1976 - Caldwell College, Caldwell, NJ
1975 - Leslie Rankow Gallery, New York
1972 - Simone Stern Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1970 - Wellfleet Art Gallery, Cape Cod, MA and Palm Beach, FL
1970 - Drawings and Serigraphs, New School for Social Research, NY
1968 - Peridot Gallery, New York
1968 - Galleri Promenade, Tromso, Norway
1967 - Galerie Puntvier, Rotterdam, Holland
1966 - Drawings & Gouaches, American Gallery, NY
1957 - Peridot Gallery, New York
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 - Artists on the Bowery, Part 1: Carmen Cicero and Alan Steele, Westwood Gallery NYC, May-Jul
2017 - Celebrating 30 Years, Gallery Artists: Drawing and Photography, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2012 - Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 1949-1960, Solomon R.
2012 - Guggenheim Museum; travelled to the Cobra Museum of Modern Art, Amstelveen, Netherlands; catalogue
2012 - Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 1949-1960, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; catalogue
2012 - Long Point: An Artists’ Place, curated by Mary E. Abell, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA; catalogue
2012 - Celebrating 25 Years, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2009 - Hidden Gems: Works on Paper, June Kelly Gallery, New York
2007 - THE 182ND ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ART, National Academy Museum, New York; catalogue
2006 - The Figure in American Painting and Drawing 1985-2005, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, ME; brochure
2005 - 180th Annual Exhibition, National Academy Museum, New York
2005 - Art Chicago In The Park, Chicago, IL
2004 - Art Dealers Association of America, 69th Street Armory, New York
2004 - Art Chicago At The Pier, Chicago, IL
2001 - Many Moons, curated by Barbara J. Bloemink, Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden, North Salem, NY
1998 - Long Point Gallery at Fine Art Work Center, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, MA
1998 - A Tribute to Long Point Gallery, Cape Museum of Fine Arts, Dennis, MA
1998 - A Salute to the Long Point Gallery, Nardin Gallery, New York
1998 - Long Point Gallery at Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA
1998 - Contemporary Selections from The National Academy at Silvermine, New Silvermine Guild Galleries, New Canaan, CT
1997 - The Artist’s Eye: Will Barnet Selects Portraits from the Permanent Collection, National Academy Museum, New York
1997 - Our Century: Selections,” Housatonic Museum of Art, The Burt Chernow Galleries, Bridgeport, CT
1997 - 20th Anniversary Exhibition, The Long Point Gallery, Provincetown, MA
1997 - American Academy Invitational Exhibition of Painting & Sculpture, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cotuit, MA
George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, MA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
National Academy of Design Museum, New York
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Montclair Art Museum, NJ
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA
The University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA
Musei Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Holland