Overview
Syd Solomon, was born in Pennsylvania in 1917 and studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1935 to 1938. After he enlisted in the military in 1940, Solomon contributed to the design of camouflage for the California coast and the Corps in London during World War II. At the close of the war, Solomon enrolled at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1945. Starting in the 1950s, Solomon and his wife, Annie, split their time between their two residences in East Hampton, New York and Sarasota, Florida. While in Sarasota, Solomon began to exhibit his work at the Ringling Museum of Art. By the 1960s, he had evolved to exhibiting work at prestigious institutions worldwide like the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Clearwater Museum of Art in Florida; and the National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C.
Solomon was also a renowned teacher, establishing his own school in Florida, the Institute of Fine Art, at New College. Additionally, he taught at the Pittsburgh Art Institute, the Sarasota School of Art, and the University of Illinois, Urbana. He received several awards throughout his career including Painting of the Year from both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the 13th New England Annual. Solomon's work can be found at the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Guggenheim Museum; the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Solo Exhibitions
Farnham Castle, Surrey, England, War Drawings, 1944.
Clearwater Museum of Art, Florida, 1951.
Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, 1953.
Associated American Artists Galleries, New York, 1955.
Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, Clearwater, 1956.
Saidenberg Gallery, New York, 1959.
Safari Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel, 1960.
Tel Aviv Museum, Israel, 1960.
331 Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1960.
Frank H. McChung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1961.
Sarasota Art Association, Civic Center, Florida, 1961.
Saidenberg Gallery, New York, 1962.
James David Gallery, Ltd., Miami Beach, Florida, 1964.
Group Gallery, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida, 1964.
St. Armands Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, 1966.
James David Gallery, Ltd., Miami Beach Florida, 1966.
Saidenberg Gallery, New York, 1967.
Jacksonville University, Florida, 1968.
Berenson Gallery, Miami, Florida, 1969.
Saidberg Gallery, New York, 1969.
Midtown Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1971.
Hokin Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, 1973.
New York Cultural Center, New York, Retrospective Exhibition, 1973-4.
John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, Retrospective Exhibition, 1973-4.
Berenson Gallery, Miami, Florida, 1974.
Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, Bellair, 1975.
Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York, 1975.
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, New Works, 1975.
Carone Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1976.
Tampa Bay Art Center, Florida, 1976.
University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida, 1977.
Boca Raton Center for the Arts, Florida, Recent Painting, 1977.
Harmon Gallery, Naples, Florida, 1977.
Adley Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, 1978.
Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Florida, 1978.
Adley Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, Works on Paper with Antonio Tapies and Anita Gibson (coastal series), 1979.
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, The Seventies, 1979.
Genesis Gallery, New York, Current Paintings, 1979.
McDowell Gallery, Toronto, Canada, Solo Exhibition, 1979.
Adley Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, Short Sentinel Series, 1980.
Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Florida, The Flow of the Wilderness (Galapagos Series), 1981.
Nardin Gallery, New York, 1981.
Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York, Recent Paintings, 1981.
Harmon Gallery, Naples, Florida, Recent Paintings, 1982.
Adley Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, Recent Paintings, 1982.
Phoenix II, Washington, D.C., Recent Paintings, 1982.
Carone Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1984
Moosart Gallery, Miami, Florida, 1984.
Harmon-meek Gallery, Naples, Florida, 1984.
Canton Art Institute, Ohio, 1984.
Florida Southern College, Lakeland, 1984.
Manatee Jr. College, Bradenton, Florida, 1986.
Vered Gallery, East Hampton, New York, 1987.
Corbino Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, 1988.
Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York, 1989.
Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples, Florida, 1989.
Corbino Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, 1990.
Scheele Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, 1990.
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, Syd Solomon: A Dialogue with Nature, 1990-92.
Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida, Syd Solomon: A Dialogue with Nature, 1990-92.
Butler Museum of Art Youngstown, Pennsylvania, 1998.
Selby Gallery, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida, Syd Solomon Revisited, 2001.
Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Easthampton, New York, Windscapes and Lightscapes, 2005.
Greene Contemporary, Sarasota, Florida, Genesis of a Sensibility, 2006.
Greene Contemporary, Sarasota, Florida, Survey, 2007.
Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Edison State College, Fort Myers, Florida, Syd Solomon: On Black, 2009.
Spanierman Gallery, New York, New York, Syd Solomon:Â Abstract Paintings from the 1960s and 1970s, 2013.
Longboat Key Center for the Arts, Longboat Key, Florida, Syd Solomon: Along the Shore 1948-1989: Where Fishing and Abstract Expressionism Met, 2013.
Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, New York, Syd Solomon: Swingscape, Paintings from the 1970s, 2015.
Museum of Art Deland, Florida, Syd Solomon: Concealed and Revealed, April 2016. (Traveling Exhibition: Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina, August 2016; Huntington Museum, Huntington, West Virginia, 2018; Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, 2018; Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, 2019).
Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, New York, Syd Solomon: Time and Tide (A Centenary Exhibition), October 2017.
Selected Museum Collections
Adelphi University, Garden City, New York
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
American University, Washington D.C.
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio
Clearwater Museum of Art, Florida
Dade County Art Collection, Miami, Florida
Fine Arts Society of Sarasota, Florida
Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
IBM, Atlanta, Georgia
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
J.M. Kaplan Fund, New York
Kokuritsu Seijo Bitjutsukar, Tokyo, Japan
LeMoyne Art Foundation, Inc., Tallahassee, Florida
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
City of Miami (Mural), Florida
Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Museum of Fine Art, Clearwater, Florida
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida
Museum of the South, Memphis, Tennessee
Naples Museum of Art, Florida
New College of the University of South Florida, Sarasota, Florida
New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana
Norton Gallery of Art, Palm Beach, Florida
Orlando International Airport, Florida
Parrish Museum of Art, Water Mill, New York
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
St. Petersburg Times (Mural), Florida
Tampa Bay Art Center, Florida
Tate Gallery, London, England
Tel Aviv Museum, Israel
Telfair Art Museum, Savannah, Georgia
Temple Beth El, El Paso, Texas
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
Weatherspoon Gallery, UNC, Greensboro, North Carolina
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas