Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit
It all began...
... one balmy spring day in 1931, in the midst of the Depression Era. Jackson Pollock, desperately in need of funds to pay the rent on his Greenwich Village studio that also served as his home, took a few of his iconoclastic paintings down several flights of stairs and set them up on the sidewalk near Washington Square Park. His friend and fellow Village artist, Willem DeKooning, in equally desperate financial straits, soon joined him.
It is not known how many works of art, whose values would soon skyrocket, they sold that day. However, their enterprise was noted by some public-spirited citizens, including such luminaries of the art world as Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum of Art, and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Director of the Museum of Modern Art.
They organized the art show that would evolve into the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, a twice-a-year happening, every Memorial Day Weekend and the weekend that follows, and every Labor Day Weekend and the weekend that follows.
Early exhibitors were Village artists Alice Neel, Saul Berman and Ilya Bolotowski. Beauford Delaney trekked down from Harlem. It is now a showcase for artists regionally, nationwide, and around the world, and is attended by art lovers from all over the world.
Among the milestones that mark its more than 80 years are the concept of the artists being selected as exhibitors by a jury of fellow artists, based on slides of their work being submitted; the abolishing of an early ban on nudes; the opening of the show to photography as an art form; and the recognition of crafts, provided each piece is one-of-a-kind and hand-made.
Cash prizes, donated by individuals, organizations and corporations, are awarded in various categories based on selection by artist-judges.
The Arch in Washington Square Park by Sonia Grineva. Ms. Grineva received her B.A. and M.F.A. from the Stroganov Institute in Moscow and later studied at New York’s National Academy of Design and the British Institute in Florence, Italy.
“I Colori dell’Anima” is available through the artist at grinevaart.com
Read more about us in The Brooklyn Rail
Officers
Carl F. Lebowitz
Chairman and President
Priscilla McCarthy
Vice President
Ann DiBiase
Treasurer
Paul Stockschlaeder
Parliamentarian
John DiBiase
Executive Director
WSOAE thanks the generosity of its corporate sponsors
Board of Directors and Membership
John DiBiase • Natalie M. Ballin • Elizabeth Forrest
Carl F. Lebowitz • Priscilla McCarthy • Ann DiBiase
Eloise Morehouse • Rebecca Pearson
Thomas Picard • Roger Rossi
Catherine C. Ruby • Leonia L. Sagasta
Marlene Schiller • Paul
Stockschlaeder • Bonnie Yousuf
Carole Teller • Ilene Skeen
The WSOAE Board mourns the passing of Olga Bacskay, a longtime WSOAE award-winning Exhibitor
Olga Bacskay, along with her daughter, Daniella Bacskay, a mother daughter team that worked mixed media oils, acrylics, leather, metal, and gemstones. Our sympathies go out to Daniella and all of Olga's surviving family.