A small collage of hand-painted paper, sewn to a backing sheet of watermarked Southworth Parchment Deed, with the traces of other pigments scattered across the frame that the threads delineate. Signed by the artist in pencil lower right.

Sheet 8.5 x 11 inches

Image 4 x 4 inches (roughly)

LEO RABKIN (1919-2015) studied art at New York University with Hale Woodruff and William Baziotes. His early work, such as the piece offered here, featured dramatic torn and stitched canvas in the spirit of Abstract Expressionism. Leo had a second major in counseling and found a position as a special education teacher in a public school devoted to troubled adolescents. While other teachers found his students disruptive, Leo Rabkin encouraged their artistic instincts and also taught them typing, a useful focus for the mind and hands that offered eventual employment. He remained in that post for fifteen years balancing his art career, teaching and a passion for art collecting that he shared with his wife Dorothea.

Leo Rabkin’s career as an artist took off in the 1960s with the debut of his Lucite and plexiglass boxes. He showed at the Richard Feigen Gallery and the Howard Wise Gallery and was featured in the prestigious annuals at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Rabkin’s work entered many museum collections, including the Whitney and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He also became president of the American Abstract Artists group.

The Rabkins were important collectors of folk art and established the Rabkin Foundation, which is located in Portland. The Foundation now awards the Rabkin prize annually, which is one of the most significant awards for art criticism in the US.