A Russian who came to New York at age 16 in 1923, Ilya Bolotowsky (1937-1980) was among the first of his generation to paint pure abstractions, initially embracing biomorphism but eventually becoming one of the foremost practitioners of hard edged, geometric painting in America.  By the mid-1930s he was a founding member of “The Ten” and the acclaimed “American Abstract Artists Group,” had completed one of the first abstract murals in the U.S. for the Williamsburg Housing Project, and continued on to become Chairman of the Art Department at Black Mountain College from 1946-48.   His works are included in every major museum collection in the country.   Never distracted by the action painters and impulsive gestures of the Abstract Expressionists, but adhering unremittingly to an art of equilibrium established through the proportions of decisive plastic means – the planes, the lines, the colors - Bolotowsky in his final years focused on pure geometric shapes on canvas and elegant screenprints on paper.