Sigmund ABELES

Sigmund Abeles (B. 1934) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He spent his early years with his mother in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. An only child, Abeles developed a determined and intensely creative nature. A natural artist with no formal art education available to him, he found inspiration studying and sketching the sculptures installed at nearby Brookgreen Gardens. In the early 1950s, Abeles was enrolled in several prestigious art programs. From 1952 through 1957, he took classes at Pratt, The Art Students League, The Skowhegan School and graduated in 1957 with an advanced degree from Columbia.

In his first 20 years as an artist, Abeles mostly worked in black and white etchings, drawings, and sculpture. His strong ability as a draughtsman makes his artwork concise and emotionally powerful. He has exhibited widely and over many decades, from inclusion in the 1965 Whitney to his 2015 solo exhibition at Brookgreen Gardens. Sigmund Abeles is an artist motivated and unafraid to take strong political stands. His political courage was honored in the 2012 documentary "Art Is... The Permanent Revolution". As Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire College, after 27 years of teaching, Abeles is currently a full-time artist, spending time in his NYC and upstate NY studios. His work is in several prominent collections: Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.