Irene Zevon

Composition 56

1956

Irene Zevon, born in Brooklyn, was the first child in a Ukrainian family of working-class immigrants. She began her art career in 1953, studying with Nahum Tschacbasov in New York City and Woodstock, New York. Tschacbasov studied with artists such as Leopold Gottlieb, Marcel Gromaire and Fernand Leger, whose techniques were passed down to Zevon. Tschacbasov while teaching belonged to a group of ten artists, which included the likes of Mark Rothko and David Burliak. His circle of friends at the time included Stuart Davis, Milton Avery, the Soyer brothers and Marsden Hartley. Irene Zevon and Nahum Tsachcbasov's relationship flourished, and they married in 1966. The couple lived seasonally in Amagansett and East Hampton and year-round in their loft-like apartment at the Hotel Chelsea where they became part of the Chelsea art scene. Zevon resided, and had a studio for 50 years, in The Chelsea. Zevon worked in a modernistic, lyrical abstract-figurative style in the mediums of oil and acrylic painting, linoleum block prints and monotype prints. Following her introduction to intaglio printmaking, she developed a unique linoleum/woodcut/stencil/monotype printing process in which three or more surface-printing techniques were used in non-traditional combinations. Concurrently, she created a collection of hand-crafted jewelry and powerful Etruscan-inspired ceramics. Her artworks are in private and museum collections throughout the U.S. including the permanent collections of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Butler Institute of American Art, California State Library, Library of Congress, Columbus Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Library of Congress, St. Louis Art Museum and Georgia Museum of Art.