Watercolor on paper 20 x 15 in. The following biographical information, submitted by Adam Tamsky, has been excerpted from the website for the artist created by Lisa Thaler with her express permission. Lisa Thaler is the author of a book entitled Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin.Sacha Kolin was born in Paris in 1911, the daughter of a mechanical engineering student who was in Paris to test his airplane propeller designs under the supervision of Gustave Eiffel. Sacha grew up in Vienna and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (architectural rendering with Oskar Strnad) and at the Academy of Fine Arts (sculpture and drawing). She was one of a handful of women to exhibit in the annuals of the Secession and the Kunstlerhaus. In 1933, Sacha returned to Paris to study in the atelier of Naum Aronson, formerly a stone carver for Auguste Rodin. Here sculptures were traditional expressive busts of men, women and children, and likened to those of Charles Despiau. In her drawings, she endeavored to apply Rodin's method of preserving spontaneity, the first impression, with well-formed figuration. This facility for spare yet full gestural drawing, saying the most with the least, is a hallmark of Kolin's graphic work at this time.She exhibited at several annual Paris Salons and in 1935, was elected "Societaire", the youngest full member, of the Nationale Societe des Beaux Arts. In December 1936, Sacha, age 25, immigrated with her parents to the United States settling in Manhattan. Three months later, the artist held her first one-person exhibition "Modern Sculptures and Sketches" at Rockefeller Center's P.E.D.A.C. Galleries. At the 1940 New York World's Fair, she was one of 42 émigré artists (including Josef Albers, Werner Drewes, Laszlo-Moholy-Nagy, and Amedee Ozenfant) represented in "New Americans of Friendship House." From the 1940's, Sacha was inspired by American Indian lore and iconography. She began to incorporate native dance imagery and create flat-plane abstract compositions in a native palette of bold primary colors on black or grey ground. In the 1950's, she hosted a color workshop in her New York studio with Bauhaus-trained Hannes Beckmann and developed further in a non-objective style. Music was another passion, and Sacha sought to convey a lyrical expressiveness in her canvases. She participated in art exhibitions with a musical theme and organized concerts in conjunction with art shows. Her work of this time, and in particular her watercolors, has been likened to that of Kandinsky and Paul Klee. Her later calligraphic drawings and painted sculpture bare similarities to the work of Arp, Calder and Miro. In the 1960's, Sacha exhibited Op Art paintings, some created in series of four canvases of up to 3' X 3' which could be hung either vertically or horizontally. Although proficient in numerous media, she considered herself primarily a sculptor. Her three-dimensional works became increasingly geometric, often monochromatic, and based on the triangle. The triangle as a leitmotif and titled references to flight recalls Sacha's paternal legacy in aeronautics and her experiences as a war-era refugee. Variations on interlocking and leaning triangles and other elemental forms address ideas of weight and balance, tension and grace. To heighten the illusion of a precarious balance, the artist began to work with reflective materials and highly polished metal finishes. Kolin experimented with machine-tooled sculpture techniques and was among the first members of Experiments in Art and Technology which arranges collaborations between artists and engineers. In 1973, Sacha's monumental aluminum sculpture Drawing in the Sky #1 was installed during her one-person exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY. Sacha Kolin, who died in 1981, was a member of Artists Equity Association and the National Association of Women Artists. Her career includes 19 one-person exhibitions and over 125 group shows. Sacha Kolin is represented in over 100 museum and private collections in the United States and abroad, some of which are listed below: SLECTED ONE-PERSON SHOWSBurliuk GalleryCondon Riley Gallery, NYEast Hampton Gallery, Easthampton, NYSouthampton CollegeEverson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NYHerbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell UniversityColgate UniversityPace University Art Gallery, NY SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONSACA Gallery, New YorkAdelphi CollegeArtists Equity HouseBall State UniversityBerner Kunstmuseum, Berne SwitzerlandBrooklyn MuseumCheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, TNDayton Art InstituteRichard L. Feigen & Co., New YorkGallery 256, Provincetown, NYGuild Hall, Easthampton, NYIBM Gallery, NYMaison des Arts, Brussels, BelgiumMFA, BostonNational Academy Galleries, NYNational Arts Club, NYNational Museum of Natural History,Washington, DCNew Orleans Museum of ArtNew School for Social Research, NYParish House, NYProvincetown Art Association and MuseumRiverside Museum, NYParis SalonsVienna SecessionStedelihjik Museum, AmsterdamWadsworth Athaneum, Hartford, CTWhitney Museum of American Art, NY1939 World's Fair (1940 American Art of Today Building)Yeshiva UniversityMUSEUM COLLECTIONSLyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CTAvampato Discovery Museum, Charleston, WVArchives of American Art, Wash.,DCBerry College Art Department Collection, Mt. Berry GAChazen Museum of Art, Univ. of WisconsinChrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk,VACooper-Hewitt, NYDayton Art Institute,Dayton, OHEverson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NYFordham University Art Collection, NYUCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles,CAHirshhorn Museum, Wash., DCHerbert F. Johnson Museum,Cornell UniversityMiami University Art Museum, Oxford, OHModern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TXNeuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase, NYPicker Art Gallery, Colgate UniversityPrint Club of Albany,NYRose Art Museum, Brandeis UniversitySouthampton College, Southampton, NYState Art Museum of Florida, Sarasota, FlaTrinity College Art Collection, Hartford, CTTyler Art Gallery, SUNY Oswego, NYUniversity Gallery, UMASS, Amherst, MAWadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT

Good condition, light toning