Astor Place, 1945

Seymour Franks
Am. 1916-1981

Astor Place, 1945

oil on canvas
34 x 28 inches
framed: 40 1/2 x 34 1/2inches
signed and dated: Franks 45
Inscribed with title on stretcher

Provenance:
Private collection, New York City

Abstracted cityscape of New York City from 1945 by American artist Seymour Franks.

Born in New York City in 1916, Seymour Franks contracted polio at the age of 16. Despite this setback, he worked for the WPA and studied at the National Academy of Design in 1937. Early in his career, Franks produced colorful modernist abstractions, later transitioning into abstract expressionism, a path followed by many New York artists of that era.

Though much of his youth was spent in hospitals, Franks emerged as a successful artist and designer. He exhibited his work at prestigious venues including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 1944 and 1954, the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1946-48, 1950, and 1952, the Brooklyn Museum in 1949 and 1951, the Art Institute of Chicago in 1947, the Peridot Gallery from 1948, 1950-55, the University of Nebraska in 1951, and the University of Illinois in 1952.