John Opper
American, 1908 - 1994
John Opper was born in 1908 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He was an abstract painter, a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group and an early member of the New York School. Opper’s career spanned nearly six decades, combining aspects of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting. He is best known for his purely abstract works in which intensely pigmented vertical bands lean, overlay and sometimes simply drift adjacent to each other, creating luminous and tactile color harmonies. Over the course of his career, he evolved from creating abstract gestural works, in which he drew inspiration from the natural world, to a pure form of abstraction. He stated in 1990: “I orchestrate color, line, and shape. My whole purpose is to produce an aesthetic response.” He held the conviction that “art is its own experience. It bespeaks a sublime relationship between the artist and his work. John Opper Paintings Art Abstract Works
