Paintings

First period: 1960s New York
This section of the website focuses on Dan Abramson’s output from his initial artistic period in New York City, demonstrating his early influences and rapid development in the context of the mid-century American art scene.

Context and Style

• Period: Abramson was actively creating and exhibiting these works after arriving in New York City in 1960. His first solo exhibition, which featured Abstract paintings, was held within a year, opening on Monday, December 4, 1961, at Gallery Mukerji.

• Style Evolution: His paintings from this period involved “abstract expressionist things” and “action painting” that eventually “segued into a pop-representational sort of genre” as he expanded his visual vocabulary.

• Historical Placement: These works position Abramson as a contemporaneous figure within the 1960s American art scene. He participated in major group shows through the mid-1960s, including the New York State Council on the Arts exhibition *Art Today 1967* with Warhol, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, and Oldenburg.

• Dual Life: During this time, Abramson maintained a demanding dual life: he was a “Mad Man” and family man by day, writing iconic 1960s advertisements with Doyle Dane Bernbach, and a prolific painter and street photographer by night.

The 1960s Paintings demonstrate that Abramson’s career was not merely a late-life resurgence, but began at the epicenter of modern American art, positioning him as a contemporaneous, historically significant figure alongside Rauschenberg and Warhol.

Renaissance: 2000s painting
After decades in assemblage, gallery boxes, and works of paper that included painterly elements, Dan returned to painting as a medium in his last decade.

The works–largely combine paintings on Arches paper mounted on foamcor–represent a fusion of his 50 years of visual language and media.