Max Spoerri
645 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
(212) 777-2852
maxespoerri@gmail.com
Artist statement:
I have been painting in my studio since the mid-fifties. My teachers were members of The New York School. I gravitated to Tenth Street, the Cedar Tavern and The Club, a gathering place for the “painting obsessed artist.” The abstract expressionists were all older than me, and I struggled with what was abstract and personal. Narrowing what could be included in the picture until it was reduced to the sheen of its surface. 0r repetition of the gesture, turning the spontaneous into a tool. The “DRIP” was used to make neo-classical heads. The art world had a new academy. From the beginning, my work conveyed my thinking; whether it starts as something I have seen or evolved through the act of painting - it is my intention to show my thoughts with paint on a canvas. In Out of The Picture: Milton Resnick and the New York School, my studio at 645 Broadway is mentioned. In Club Without Walls by Philip Pavia, I am the unidentified figure in the photo with Emanuel Navaretta, Paul Jenkins, Milton Resnick, unidentified, Michael Loew. (Page50) In Fred McDarrah’s The Artist World in Pictures with Al Held, Peter Sander and me (Page56). These photos are my degrees. I worked under Hofmann on two of his mosaics. And, yes, I did carpentry, plumbing, moved furniture, painted houses, and shingled Bill De Kooning’s house. Max Spoerri 6.22.2009
