Jack Youngerman

Art Brokerage: Jack Youngerman American Artist: Jack Youngerman created paintings with the scale of Abstract Expressionism but without that movement's bravura brushwork and emphasis on inner torment. Youngerman then turned his attention to prints, and by end of the 50's he had produced some of the most exuberant images of the period. Like his contemporary paintings, these images are characterized by Youngerman's evocative use of seemingly simple and vibrantly colored shapes. But while the prints relate to his paintings, they are uniquely graphic solutions to his concerns. Early on, Youngerman grasped that print-making has its own vocabulary and its own grammar. Particularly striking is Youngerman's highly effective use of one color to create dynamic tension. In some of his most striking prints from the 1960s Youngerman printed the surrounding background and allowed the figures to emerge from the colored ground as unprinted paper. In fact, the artist seems continually open to the notion that his work is evocative of the natural world, despite the fact that Youngerman doesn't work from nature and bases his forms on images from his imagination. While much of Youngerman's imagery from the period is highly suggestive of natural forms, some of his shapes are far more mysterious in origin. Ultimately, what unites this body of work is Youngerman's uncanny ability to create a form whose very shape seems equal parts familiar and elusive.