Jack Youngerman

Jack Youngerman was born in Webster Groves, Missouri in 1926, and moved with his family to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1929. He took his first art class while studying at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a grant from the U.S. Navy, and in 1947 he graduated from the University of Missouri. After college, with the aid of the G.I. Bill, Youngerman studied at the École des beaux-arts in Paris remaining in the city to paint until 1955. Youngerman was friends with fellow students César, Ellsworth Kelly, and Eduardo Paolozzi and visited the studios of Jean Arp and Constantin Brancusi. Youngerman began to incorporate his Hard-edge,geometric abstraction, and Constructivist elements that would characterize his style. In 1956, Youngerman returned to the United States, settling in New York. In 1958, he debuted his first solo exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery, which would be followed by six more. Youngerman was also featured alongside such contemporaries as Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, and Frank Stella in MoMA. His works can be found in the collections of MoMA, Guggenheim, Whitney, Smithsonian, Phillips Collection, Carnegie Institute, Corcoran Gallery, and Hirshhorn Museum.