Richard "Dick" Wray

Richard "Dick" Wray ( 1933 - 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter whose work had an influence on the art scene in Houston, Texas. After an art career spanning over 50 years, he died at age 77 of liver disease. His work continues to be showcased by art institutions and organizations across Houston, including the William Reaves Gallery, and is listed on the official website for the National Gallery of Art.Though originally interested in architecture, Wray's interactions with the work of abstract expressionists, artists of a European avant-garde movement known as the CoBrA group and New York Abstract Expressionists (which Wray also saw for the first time in Europe) had tremendous influences on his artistic passions. In effect, Wray deviated away from architecture and, equipped with new knowledge of European expressionism, returned to Texas at age 26 to begin his career as a painter.Wikipedia

Alexandre Istrati - Abstract Art

"Alexandre Istrati (1915 – 1991 ) was a Franco-Romanian painter. He won numerous prizes, including 1953 the Prix Kandinsky.

Alexandre Istrati was born in 1915 and died in 1991 in Paris. At the early age of nine, Istrati began to paint, but he decided to study at the University of Bucharest from 1932-1937.  In 1938 Istrati received his diploma from the art academy of Bucharest where he was a professor until 1947. He married the Romanian painter Natalia Dumitresco in 1939. Alexandre Istrati received many awards for his work in Bucharest. Because of a scholarship in 1947, Istrati and his wife were able to move to Paris where they established themselves. Istrati studied with Andre L'hote at the Ecole de Beaux in Paris. Istrati and Dumitresco befriended the sculptor Constantin Brancusi, and worked in a studio next door until Brancusi's death in 1957. "(askart.com)

Emil Schumacher - Abstract Expressionism & Tachisme

Emil Schumacher (1912 - 1999 ) was a German painter. He was an important representative of abstract expressionism in post-war Germany.

In 2009 the Kunstquartier Hagen was inaugurated combining the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum Hagen as well as the newly built Emil Schumacher Museum in one Museum complex.

"Emil Schumacher was a German painter. Noted for his championing of German Abstract Expressionism in post-World War II Germany, he created large-scale canvases characterized by large areas of bold primary color intersected by thick, messy black lines. Comparable to colorful version of Franz Kline’s iconic abstractions, Schumacher strove to denote a sense of pictorial representation within an abstract space. His life and career was long and prolific, with participation among prominent exhibitions such as the 1953 Venice Biennale, the 1963 São Paulo Art Biennial, and documenta III in 1963 Germany. Born on August 29, 1912 in Hagen, Germany, Schumacher went to study at the School of the Arts in Dortmund from 1932 to 1935. He received a 1987 Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia, and in 1998, the German government commissioned him for a mural in the renovated Reichstag building in Berlin. The Emil Schumacher Museum dedicated to his life and work was opened in the Kunstquartier complex of Hagen, Germany in 2009. The artist died on October 4, 1999 in San José, Spain at the age of 87."(artnet)

Carel Nicolaas Visser - Abstract Minimalist Sculpture

Carel Nicolaas Visser ( 1928 - 2015) was a Dutch sculptor. He is considered an important representative of Dutch abstract-minimalist constructivism in sculpture.

Carel Visser is seen as one of the most important constructivist sculptors of the Netherlands. His later work is characterized by the assembly of a variety of materials, such as tires, oil drums, car windows, leather, sheepskin, eggs and so on. He made organized connections, a kind of assemblages, with this so-called great and sometimes small objets trouvés (found objects). Some of his work has been compared to a musical composition in which repetition and variation play an important role.