Shmuel Shapiro (1924 - 1983) - Landscape

Author: Shmuel Shapiro (1924, 1983)
Dimension: 76 x 56 cm
Year: 1972
Lithography: numbered 100/100

About the author:
Shmuel Shapiro (b. September 19, 1924, New Britain, Connecticut — d. August 12, 1983, Ravensburg) was a painter and sculptor of Russian-Jewish descent whose life and work were full of movement and color. He began formal art studies at 15 in Hartford, interrupted in 1943 when he served in World War II as a sergeant in the 286th Pioneer Battalion and took part in the liberation of Colmar. After the war he resumed studies in Hartford, then attended the Museum School in Boston (working with Karl Zerbe), the Art Students League in New York, and the John Herron Art Institute and Indiana University (MFA) where he also taught. He participated in major print exhibitions including at the Museum of Modern Art.

A 1955 Fulbright took him to Paris, where he befriended artists such as Miró, Chagall, Giacometti, Corneille and de Staël. Between 1957 and 1976 he lived alternately in France, Switzerland, Germany and the USA. From 1963–1967 he lived in Karlsruhe, joined local art associations and the Jewish community, and produced the graphic cycle “Gate of Death” confronting Auschwitz and the Holocaust. He exhibited widely across Europe and the UK.

After stints in the US and Basel—where he produced abstract works and the “Mazel Tov Suite” of 13 lithographs and met Mark Tobey—he held a professorship in Halifax in 1974. From 1976–1983 he settled in Immenried (Allgäu), supported by gallerist Ewald Schrade, taught at a winter academy, and met his later partner Ruth Lichti. His late work was noted for luminous fields of color. Shapiro’s final exhibitions during his lifetime were held in 1982; he died in 1983 at age 58 after completing a striking painting.


Shipping from Germany.