Holty, Carl, 1900-1973

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Carl Holty (1900-1973) was a painter and writer from New York, N.Y.

From the description of Oral history interview with Carl Holty, 1968 Sept. 25-Oct. 1 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 495596637

Painter and writer; New York, N.Y.

From the description of Oral history interview with Carl Holty, 1965 June 9. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 81548756

From the description of Oral history interviews with Carl Holty interviews, 1968 Sept. 25-Oct. 1 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 81680590

From the description of Oral history interview with Carl Holty, 1964 Dec. 8. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 81903357

Painter, writer; New York, N.Y.

Member of American Abstract Artists and Audubon Artists.

From the description of Carl Holty papers, circa 1860s-1972 (bulk 1940-1967). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220244046

Carl Holty was born in 1900 to American parents in Freiburg, Germany, where his father was studying medicine. Carl was still an infant when the family returned to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they lived with his grandparents in a traditional German neighborhood. It was Carl’s grandfather who first introduced him to art through visits to a small local commercial gallery.

After showing an interest in being an artist at around age 12, Holty began taking lessons with a local painter. As a teenager he began drawing cartoons and soon set his sights on becoming a poster artist. With that in mind, Holty enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1919. He soon headed to New York and took courses at the Parsons School of Design and then at the National Academy of Design. In 1923 he returned to Milwaukee and opened a portrait painting studio.

Holty married in 1925 and took his bride to Europe, remaining abroad for the next decade. He entered Hans Hofmann’s school in Munich in 1926, and exposure to Hofmann’s ideas about color, space, and form greatly influenced and transformed his work. In 1927, the Holtys relocated to Switzerland in search of treatment for Mrs. Holty’s tuberculosis. Holty and Hofmann remained in touch, and while in Switzerland, Holty increasingly incorporated Hofmann’s teachings into his paintings as they grew more abstract in style.

After his wife’s death in 1930, Holty moved to Paris for five years where he participated in several exhibitions and his work was well-received. Robert Delaunay invited him to join Abstration-Création, and the group published some of Holty’s work in its magazine.

Upon returning to the United States in 1935, Holty settled in New York City where he eventually remarried and had a daughter. He renewed friendships with Hans Hofmann, Vaclav Vytlacil, and Stuart Davis, whom he had known in Paris. A figure in vanguard art circles, Holty was involved in meetings that resulted in the formation of the American Abstract Artists, and in 1938 he served as the group’s chairman.

Holty taught drawing and paining at Brooklyn College from 1950 until his retirement in 1970, when he was designated Professor Emeritus. His years at Brooklyn College were punctuated by brief stints as a visiting instructor at the Art Students League, Washington University (St. Louis), and University of Louisville; he served as artist-in-residence at the universities of Georgia, Florida, California (Berkeley), and Wisconsin, and the Corcoran School of Art.

He exhibited widely at major museums throughout the United States including: the San Francisco Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Carnegie Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Holty’s work was shown at major New York galleries such as J. B. Neumann, Samuel Kootz Gallery, and Graham Gallery, and is in the permanent collections of many museums including: Addison Gallery of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Butler Institute of Art, Carnegie Institute, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Carl Holty died March 22, 1973 in New York City, after a short illness.

From the guide to the Carl Holty papers, circa 1860s-1972 (bulk 1940-1967), (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Holty, Carl, 1900-1973. [Carl Holty : artist file] Detroit Institute of Arts Research Library & Archives, DIA Research Library & Archives
referencedIn Martin Diamond papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Holty, Carl, 1900-1973. Carl Robert Holty : artist file : study photographs and reproductions of works of art with accompanying documentation 1930?-1990 [graphic] [compiled by staff of The Museum of Modern Art, New York]. Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection
creatorOf Sandler, Irving, 1925-. Irving Harry Sandler papers, circa 1944-2007, bulk 1944-1980. Archives of American Art
creatorOf Holty, Carl, 1900-1973. Artist file. Brooklyn Museum Libraries & Archives
referencedIn Abraham Rattner and Esther Gentle papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Carl Holty [graphic]. Archives of American Art
creatorOf Carl Holty papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Erle Loran papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Mark Tobey papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Belle Krasne Ribicoff papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Lillian Dochterman papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Colette Roberts Papers and Interviews with Artists Archives of American Art
referencedIn Thomas, Howard, 1899-1971. Howard Thomas papers, 1888, 1895, 1899-1974 [manuscript]. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
referencedIn Holty, Carl Robert, 1900- : [miscellaneous ephemeral material]. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas J. Watson Library
creatorOf Martyl Langsdorf papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf HOLTY, CARL. Artist file : miscellaneous uncataloged material. Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
referencedIn Belle Krasne Ribicoff papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Irving Sandler interviews and papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Robert Jay Wolff papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Ben Cunningham Papers, 1904-1969 Syracuse University. Library. Special Collections Research Center
creatorOf Abraham Rattner and Esther Gentle papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Romare Bearden papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Hilaire Hiler papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf American Abstract Artists records Archives of American Art
referencedIn Romare Bearden papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Colette Roberts Papers and Interviews with Artists Archives of American Art
referencedIn Ulfert Wilke papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Managing editor Russell Lynes correspondence with artists Archives of American Art
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Oral history interview with Carl Holty Archives of American Art
creatorOf Anne Bowen Parsons collection of interviews on art Archives of American Art
referencedIn Oral history interview with Romare Bearden Archives of American Art
creatorOf Oral history interview with Carl Holty Archives of American Art
creatorOf Oral history interview with Carl E. Pickhardt Archives of American Art
Relation Name
associatedWith Agee, William C. person
associatedWith Bearden, Romare, 1911-1988. person
associatedWith Bowman, Ruth, 1923- person
associatedWith Byrne, Charles B. person
associatedWith Byrne, Charles B. person
associatedWith Cummings, Paul, person
associatedWith Cunningham, Ben, 1904-1975 person
associatedWith Detroit Institute of Arts Research Library & Archives. corporateBody
associatedWith Diamond, Martin. person
associatedWith Dochterman, Lillian, d. 1968. person
associatedWith Hiler, Hilaire, 1898-1966. person
associatedWith Hooton, Bruce Duff, 1928- person
associatedWith Horosko, Marian, person
associatedWith Krasne Ribicoff, Belle person
associatedWith Loran, Erle, 1905-1999. person
associatedWith Martyl, 1918- person
associatedWith Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project. corporateBody
associatedWith Parsons, Anne Bowen person
associatedWith Rattner, Abraham. person
associatedWith Ribicoff, Belle Krasne, 1924- person
associatedWith Roberts, Colette, 1910-1971. person
associatedWith Sandler, Irving, 1925- person
associatedWith Thomas, Howard, 1899-1971. person
associatedWith Tobey, Mark. person
associatedWith Wilke, Ulfert, 1907-1987. person
associatedWith Wolff, Robert Jay, 1905- person
associatedWith WRFM (Radio station : New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
Place Name Admin Code Country
New York (State)
New York (State)
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
New York (State)
Subject
Art, American
Art
Federal aid to the arts
Painters
Painters
Painters
Painting
Painting, Modern
Painting, Modern
Occupation
Activity

Person

Birth 1900-06-21

Death 1973-03-22

Americans

Information

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