Alfonso A. Ossorio
Alfonso Ossorio Angel ( born August 2, 1916 in Manila, Philippines, † December 5, 1990 in East Hampton, New York, USA ) was an American painter of Filipino descent. He was one of the representatives of Abstract Expressionism, known for his assemblages.
Life and work
Alfonso Ossorio was born in Manila as a child of wealthy parents from the Philippine province of Negros Occidental. Its roots were Spanish, Filipino and Chinese. At the age of eight to thirteen years he attended school in England. In 1930 he moved to the United States. From 1934 to 1938 he studied art at Harvard University and then continued his studies at the School of Design Rhode Iceland continues. In 1933, he received American citizenship and served as a medical illustrator in the United States Army during World War II.
Ossorios early works are attributed to the surrealism. He was an admirer and collector of the early paintings of Jackson Pollock, who declared him one of his good friends. In the early 1950s, Ossorio began with thick oil spread and enamel paints to paint on the canvas.
In 1950, Ossorio traveled to Paris to meet Jean Dubuffet. Dubuffet's interest in Art Brut opened up new perspectives for Ossorio, at ease to deal with the artistic potential of the mentally ill and uneducated children. On the advice of Pollock Ossorio bought a large estate (240,000 m² ), "The Creeks " in East Hampton, in 1951 and lived there for more than forty years. He pointed to the estate among other Dubuffet's Art Brut Collection.
In the 1950s, Ossorio began to create works that were reminiscent of Dubuffet's assemblages. He used shells, bones, driftwood, nails, doll eyes, buttons, dice, fashion jewelry, mirror shards and toys which he mounted on the pictures. Ossorio called these assemblages communities, with an obvious religious allusion.
In 1961 Ossorio stood next Dubuffet and nearly 140 other artists at the Museum of Modern Art in the exhibition The Art of Assemblage ( The Art of Assemblage ) from. In 1964 he took part in documenta III in Kassel in the painting department.
As Ossorio died in 1990, half of his ashes were scattered at his estate, the other half nine years later buried in the Green River Cemetery, next to many other famous artists, writers and critics.
His works are included in numerous public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Harvard Art Museum in Massachusetts, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.