The Journal News/Sparkill artist Vytlacil exerted wide influence

by Kevin McCoy

Sparkill artist Vytlacil exerted wide influence

Vaclav Vytlacil By KEVIN McCOY
Staff Writer

Vaclav Vytlacil, an influential modernist painter and founder of the American Abstract Artists’ group who died at his Sparkill home last week at the age of 91, lived a life of vibrant colors and bold geometric designs.

Influenced by Cezanne and Picasso, his career began early in the century and continued almost until his death. Mr. Vytlacil painted still
Staff photo—Art Sarno
Artist Vaclav Vytlacil in his studio in 1979. lifes and forms as well as wood and mixed-media figures.

“His work went the whole way from Realism through the Cubist period to the Abstract Objective,” said Rosina Florio, director of the Art Students League in New York City, where Mr. Vytlacil taught for more than 30 years. “And he was a very great influence on other artists.”

“He had a truly enormous influence,” said Lawrence Stapleton, a student of Mr. Vytlacil who now teaches art at Brooklyn College. “Like all the great teachers, his art was a religion he tried to convey to others.”

Mr. Vytlacil, who taught at numerous schools around the country, worked with many students who went on to become well known modernist American painters. Among them were Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Bourgeois, James Rosenquist and Cy Twombly.

Born in New York City Nov. 1, 1892, to Czech immigrants, he was reared and educated in Chicago. Mr. Vytlacil began his art studies at the Art Students League in 1913 and shortly afterward traveled to Europe to paint and study.

Influenced by the work of Cezanne, he became a student in Munich of Hans Hofmann, a well-known German modernist painter. With Mr. Vytlacil’s assistance and urging, Hofmann came to the United States and taught modern European painting styles to American students.

Mr. Vytlacil, who maintained his association with the Art Students League while abroad, returned to the United States in 1935. A year later, he and 13 other painters and sculptors founded the “American Abstract Artists,” a group whose collective work paved the way for the abstract expressionists of the 1940s.

Finding New York City increasingly congested, Mr. Vytlacil searched for a new location for his work. In 1941, he settled in Sparkill.

“He found he would prefer more space and solitude for his painting, and Rockland County at that time was very rural and suitable for his purposes,” said his daughter, Anne.

Though he traveled to New York City, France, and elsewhere, Mr. Vytlacil and his wife, Elizabeth—also an artist settled into a home on King’s Highway.

Over the years, he continued teaching at the Art Students League, as well as Columbia University, Queens College, Black Mountain College, the Minneapolis School of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Though his teaching career flourished. he found his own work receiving less attention than that of his notable pupils and other modern painters. Mr. Vytlacil’s intolerance for politics in the art world helped keep him out of the spotlight, Ms. Florio theorized.

“He also left New York City at a time when the whole scene was getting very hot,” contended Campbell. “If he had stayed, he would have talked and come into contact with other artists more frequently and that would have been better for his work.”

Still, recognition came near the end of his career. The Montclair (N.J.) Art Museum held a retrospective of Mr. Vytlacil’s work in 1975. And the Rockland Center for the Arts sponsored a one-man exhibit of his work a year later.

Today, his work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Museum of Fine Arts.

“He was an influential teacher,” said Ms. Florio, “but more important than that, he will probably be one of the ones whose work remains while those who are popular now fall by the wayside.”

Besides his wife and daughter, Mr. Vytlacil is survived by a sister, Elizabeth Sullivan.

A graveside service and burial took place Saturday in Rockland Cemetery. A memorial service is to be held at the Art Students League, but no time has yet been set.