Maurice Golubov

1905 - 1987

Maurice Golubov was born in Vetka, Russia to Orthodox Jewish parents who envisioned their son becoming a Rabbi. The young Maurice was steeped in Yiddish, Hebrew, the Talmud and medieval Jewish Mysticism, which had a life-long influence on his career. As a boy of six he found a copy of Gustave Doré's Bible from 1891 and was enthralled, making copies with the luscious illustrations where-in the biblical inhabitants were often minus clothing. His mother was appalled and he was punished but it set his future in which he always pursued the duality of figuration and abstraction.

In 1914 his mother decided to take the family to New York, where his father was already established. The journey was long and arduous. At one point Maurice got separated from his family and spent harrowing months among "wild children" before miraculously finding his family again in Petrograd. They eventually arrived in New York in late 1917.

In New York, he first studied art during evening classes with John Sloan at a Hebrew Educational Society settlement house where Mark Tobey introduced him to the National Academy of Design where, in 1922, he received the Suydam Silver Medal for excellence in life drawing. At the time, Golubov had never seen a modern or avant-garde artwork, yet in class he began making small abstractions in the margins of his school work. He was trying to fulfill a curiosity he’d had since childhood, to make a visual representation of the invisible world he could sense and feel — things that were real and yet unseen. He would eventually develop this into his concept of the Fourth Dimension. He eventually discovered New York museums and by the late 1920s, he had discovered Kandinsky, Picasso, and Cézanne on his roster of revered masters. He became friendly with a number of other artists — Max Weber, Stuart Davis, and Arshile Gorky, Milton Avery, and David Smith. By the late 1930s he continued to move between abstraction and figuration. In 1941 Golubov had a solo exhibition at the Artists’ Gallery where Alice Mason and George L.K. Morris saw the show and invited im to join the American Abstract Artists. By the late 1940s, most of Golubov’s work was abstract. He showed in group exhibitions at the Walker Art Center, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1943 and 1952, he had solo shows at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Betty Parsons gave him a solo show at the Mortimer Brandt Gallery. In 1962 Golubov’s work was featured in Recent Painting USA: The Figure at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1975 he began representation with Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York and in 1980 was given his first major museum retrospective at the Mint Museum, ending at the Jewish Museum. He was 75 years old.

To read more on Golubov's life and work click HERE

Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Maurice Golubov, Woodstock, 1952
#0
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Planetary Formations, 1978
oil on canvas
42 x 50 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13233
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Red, White, Gray, 1966
oil on canvas
40 x 45 inches
signed and dated at lower center; estate stamped verso; ex-Tibor de Nagy Gallery
#13235
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1948
mixed media on artist's board
19 3/4 x 29 1/2 inches
signed at lower right; signed, dated and estate stamped verso
#13220
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1960
oil on canvas
24 x 29 inches
titled, dated and estate stamped verso
#13223
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled No. X-A281, 1939
tempera on paper
21 1/2 x 29 1/4 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13222
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1944
oil on paper
21 1/2 x 25 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13373
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Flight #3, 1978
oil on canvas
34 x 44 inches
signed and estate stamped verso
#13399
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Red, 1971
oil on canvas
15 x 36 inches
signed at lower right; signed, dated, titled and estate stamped verso
#13225
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1974
oil on canvas
26 x 34 inches
signed and dated at lower right; signed and estate stamped verso
#13410
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
City Moonlight, 1950
gouache on paper
17 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13213
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1975
oil on canvas
28 x 28 inches
estate stamped verso
#13224
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1934
oil on paper
16 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13215
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled (from a 1929 Miniature), 1968
oil on canvas
32 x 41 inches
signed at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13234
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1971
oil on canvas
36 x 26 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13226
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1972
oil on canvas
47 3/4 x 40 inches
signed and dated at lower right; dated and estate stamped verso
#13232
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Mechanical World no. 1, 1943
mixed media on artist's board
20 x 30 inches
signed at lower left; titled, dated and estate stamped verso
#13221
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1976
oil on canvas
24 x 34 inches
signed and dated at lower left; estate stamped verso
#13228
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1938
mixed media on artist's board
21 1/2 x 28 inches
estate stamped verso
#13219
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, c.1934
gouache and pencil on paper mounted to board
18 3/4 x 24 inches
signed at lower center; estate stamped verso
#13216
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1977
oil on canvas
25 x 36 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13227
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1974
oil on canvas
26 x 34 inches
signed at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13408
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Motive No. 1, Rockport, 1940
gouache on paper
20 1/2 x 24 inches
signed, dated, and titled at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13370
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
White Comp. #2, 1935
oil on heavy paper
20 3/4 x 30 1/4 inches
signed at lower right; titled and estate stamped verso
#13374
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Promenade, 1952
oil on canvas
25 x 30 inches
signed at lower right; dated, titled and estate stamped verso
#13406
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1983
oil on canvas
44 x 26 inches
signed and estate stamped verso
#13405
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1972
oil on canvas
50 x 40 inches
signed at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13404
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Mad One, 1947
oil on canvas
48 x 36 inches
dated, titled and estate stamped verso
#13403
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, c. 1970
oil on canvas
25 x 34 inches
signed and estate stamped verso
#13411
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1936
charcoal and ink wash on paper
18 x 24 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13371
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1941
oil on paper
22 x 30 inches
signed and dated at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13372
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1978
gouache on paper
8 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches
signed at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13386
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1972
gouache on paper
11 1/2 x 8 5/8 inches
signed at lower center; estate stamped verso
#13389
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1982
gouache on paper
11 3/8 x 8 1/2 inches
signed at lower center; estate stamped verso
#13391
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1980
gouache on paper
12 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches
signed at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13393
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1979
gouache on paper
9 1/8 x 12 inches
signed at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13394
Maurice Golubov (1905 - 1987)
Untitled, 1982
gouache on paper
10 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches
signed at lower right; estate stamped verso
#13396