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.

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