Roy Newell, Known for Detailed Geometric Abstracts, 92
DGH
Roy Newell, Artist Known for Detailed Geometric Abstracts, Dies at 92
By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
NY Times
Roy Newell, a painter of geometric abstracts and one of the original
members of the American Abstract Expressionists, died on Nov. 22 in
Manhattan. He was 92.
The cause was cancer, said Anne Cohen, his wife.
Mr. Newell was a vivid colorist, dedicating himself to creating closely
wrought, irregular geometrical pattern paintings that resemble quilted
fields of color. He would often rework his paintings over the course of
decades, slowly building up the geometric shapes and surfaces in
countless layers, using great densities of paint. Some of his paintings
are an inch thick.
Though quietly admired by critics and peers, Mr. Newell remained
outside of the art world mainstream. His market and visibility suffered
from his irascible personality and his relentless perfectionism. He was
a slow, episodic worker, showing seldom in a career of almost 70 years.
His total output is believed to be fewer than 100 paintings.
Money never motivated him, and he had immense difficulty parting with
paintings; in one famous incident, he requested a painting back from a
collector so that he could rework it. Among his few patrons and
supporters were the painters Willem and Elaine de Kooning, who in 1988
gave a painting by him to the Guggenheim Museum. It is one of the few
by him in a major museum collection, though recognition of his
importance as an artist has gradually increased over time.
Roy Newell was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on May 10,
1914, the son of immigrants from Eastern Europe. He was one of four
children, who all grew up in poverty after their father abandoned them.
His mother, who was illiterate, worked odd jobs to support the family.
He attended school only sporadically, immersing himself in poetry when
he was there; he also learned to draw.
He was almost entirely self-taught as an artist, taking as his models
and mentors the early Modern artists, particularly Cézanne; Kasimir
Malevich and Russian Constructivists; and the Nabis painters. Later he
was also drawn to the work of Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917), whose
former studio on West 15th Street he once used as a studio and home.
In the early 1940s a chance meeting with de Kooning at the New York
Public Library on 42nd Street drew him into the Abstract
Expressionists' circle. He was later a founding member of the Eighth
Street Artists' Club, an early gathering of a number of notable
artists associated with the New York School, like de Kooning, Arshile
Gorky, Franz Kline and Phillip Pavia.
Though he seldom exhibited his work, when he did so, it often received
praise in The New York Times and other publications. Writing about his
second show of abstractions at the Hacker Gallery in New York in 1953,
a writer for Art News noted, "He attacks white canvas rather like a
blacksmith pounding on an anvil, and produces thereby an impression of
vigor that scorns grace."
Mr. Newell was focused on painting to the exclusion of many things in
his life. He rarely attended exhibition openings and never promoted
himself and his paintings, relying on his wife, a schoolteacher, to
support him. She is his only immediate survivor. He did, however, have
a passion for fishing, filling his apartment in Chelsea with rods,
reels and fishing memorabilia, and making beautiful lures.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/obituaries/02newell.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin