Overview
An integral member of the American Abstract movement, Ferren was one of the few American artists who developed his painting style while living in Paris along with such avant-garde figures as Pierre Matisse who hosted a show of Ferren's work in his New York Gallery in 1936, Pablo Picasso who befriended him, as well as Kandinsky and Mondrian who exhibited with him. Ferren would eventually become the president of The Club in New York City, which represented the intellectual center of Abstract Expressionism. He was included in Leo Castelli's seminal "Ninth Street Show" just a year before Outdoors was painted. In the late 1950s, he collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on the films The Trouble with Harry (1955) and Vertigo (1958), serving as artistic consultant. A bold and instinctive feeling for color and its possibilities set Ferren apart from his contemporaries; in all his art Ferren attempted to discover reality apart from sheer appearance.
Exhibitions
San Francisco Art Association, CA, 1923-30
Los Angeles Art Association, CA, 1923-30
Galerie Zak, Paris, 1932
Matisse Gallery, NY, 1936
Putzel Gallery, CA, 1936
Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1937
San Francisco Museum of Art, CA, 1937
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, PA, 1939, 1946, 1958, 1964-66Â
Corcoran Gallery, D.C., 1940-41 (solo)
Detroit Institute of Art, MD, 1946
Art Institute of Chicago, IL, 1947
Kleemann Gallery, NY, 1948-49
Museum of New Mexico, NM, 1950
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA, 1952
San Francisco Museum of Art, CA, 1952
Stanford University, CA, 1952
Iolas Gallery, NY, 1953
Stable Gallery, NY, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958Â
Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, PA, 1955
Pasadena Museum of Art, CA, 1955
Provincetown Art Festival, MA, 1958
Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York, Abstract Expressionists and Imagists, 1961
American Embassy Gallery, London, 1965
Museums and Public Collections
Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Santa Barabara Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
Scripps College, Claremont, CA
Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln Nebraska
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York
Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago
University of California Art Museum, Berkeley, CA