Hyde Solomon (1911-1982)

An artistic relative of the Abstract Expressionists, Hyde Solomon was long active in the New York art scene, first as a student at the Art Students League and then with continuous exhibitions in galleries from 1940 into the 1960s.  He showed at the progressive Jane Street Gallery at that time, which he help to bring into existence. In 1950 Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg chose Solomon's work for a group show at the Kootz Gallery on Madison Avenue.  Solomon also exhibited with Helen Frankenthaler and Edward Corbett at New York's Stable Gallery.

Present at the creation of late modernism from the mid-1940s, Solomon painted abstract works as well as strong portraiture.  Solomon moved to Taos New Mexico in 1972 on a Wurlitzer Foundation Grant along with fellow artist Lawrence Calcagno, who had received the same grant as well, and both artist subsequently became part time Taos Residents.

Solomon's often painted landscapes, as his pictorial interests were well suited to the scenic northern New Mexico environment. In consciously depicting the elements of nature, especially, Southwest skyscapes, Solomon entered a brief but productive period in Taos.  He composed the skyscape as if the many colors of clouds might be combined all at once.  Out of this complexity comes a grace and beauty-nature ordered and integrated rather than fractured and incomplete, based on harmonizing color.  He painted in Taos for only a few years before becoming too ill to continue working. He had his last major one-person show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe three years before he died.