Jules Olitski (1922-2007)
February 4th, 2007 by Menachem Wecker
Jules Olitski passed away yesterday after a tragic fight with prostate cancer. I only met Jules briefly, but I had heard so many good things about him from friends, and it is hard to add anything after Clement Greenberg held him as one of the most important painters of his day.
His work certainly made him one of the most important Jewish painters of his generation. I met him at an opening of a recent show of his at the George Washington University Brady Gallery (see my photograph of him). I also met his lovely wife Kristina and daughter (and artist) Lauren Poster.
There will be a memorial service in New York in March, which I will try to elaborate upon when I receive more information. So far there are no obituaries anywhere in the press, but I am sure they will convey not only how important Jules was to modern painting, but also how good a person he was.
I reviewed his Brady Gallery show in both the Forward and the Jewish Press.
Here are selections:
“I ask the Almighty for help. That frees me,” Olitski once wrote. “Look at what He is able to do with a handful of dust and a rib, and here I am with all this paint and a brush and my life in my hands, and all I need is to make a good work of art; I get back to work.”
“When my husband sells a painting, he gets down on his knees and thanks G-d,” Kristina told me of her husband, Jules Olitski, at an opening of his work in Washington, D.C.
Olga Roninson Says
Thank you for such kind words about Jules, who was my mother Emily’s cousin, so Lauren Poster and I are second cousins. There is an obituary in Brattleboro (Vt) Reformer or you cna look up the web site Legacy.com. It is a very short one, problay form Lauren.
Funeral is tomorrow, Feb 6 in Vermont.
All the best to you and yours.
B’shalom,
Olga (Zernitskaya) Roninson
Feb 5th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Jamie Says
Please let me know where the New York Memorial service is…I would like to try to attend, if it is open to family friends. I know Lauren from the lake in New Hampshire.- Thank you.
Mar 24th, 2007 at 8:39 am