Cotin, Albert

Albert Kotin was born on August 7, 1907 in Minsk , the Russian Empire and emigrated to the United States in 1908. In 1923 he received US citizenship .

From 1924 to 1929 studied at the New York National Academy of Design . In the period from 1929 to 1932. - in Paris at the Academy of Julian , the Academy de la Grand Chaumiere , as well as at the Academy of Colarossi . Later, from 1947 to 1951. studied at the New York Art Student League .

He participated in federal projects such as the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) from 1933 to 1934. and the Works Progress Administration (“WPA”) for five years, from 1935 to 1940.

He participated and won contests funded by the Department of Painting and Sculpture (later renamed the Department of Fine Arts) by the US Treasury Department in Ada, Ohio and Arlington, New Jersey . In addition, in 1938, as part of the WPA project (see above), he painted two murals for the post office in Kearney, New Jersey - The City (The City) and The Marsh (Marsh).

During the Second World War (1941-1945), he served in the US Army .

After the war, Albert Cotin established a studio on 10th Street in New York . Shortly thereafter, he joined the Downtown Group, which represented a group of artists who also established their studios in Lower Manhattan in the area bounded by 8th and 12th Street between First and Sixth Avenue in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These artists were called the “Downtown Group” as opposed to the “Uptown Group”, founded in wartime at the “The Art of This Century Gallery”.

In 1949, Albert Cotin joined the so-called "Club of Artists" located on 8th East Street. Albert Kotin was chosen by his fellow artists to participate in the Ninth Street Show, which was held from May 21 to June 10, 1951 on the ground floor and in the basement of the building on 9th East Street, which they were about to demolish .

“Artists celebrated not only the appearance of dealers, collectors and museum people on“ 9th Street ”and the consistent impact of their work, but also the creation, the strength of a living community of considerable size” ^[1] .

Albert Cotin participated in all the annual collections of New York painting and sculpture. The first yearbook in 1951 was called the Ninth Street Show. From 1953 to 1957 New York painting and sculpture collections were held at Stable Gallery on 58th West Street in New York . He was one of 24 out of a total of 256 New York school artists who participated in all yearbooks. These meetings were important because the participants were chosen by the artists themselves.

In addition, Albert Cotin was a poet who inspired his fellow artists ^[2] . Alexander Calder in 1968 wrote: "As long as there are people such as Al Cotin, there is no danger to art." ^[3]

Albert Cotin died on February 6, 1980 in New York from lung cancer at the age of 72.

• 1951: (first) Hacker Gallery, New York City;
• 1958: Grand Central Moderns Gallery, New York City;
• 1959: Tanager Gallery, New York City;
• 1960: Galerie Iris Clert, Paris, France; Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Canada;
• 1961: Mili-Jay Gallery, Woodstock, New York;
• 1964, 1965: Byron Gallery, New York City;
• 1968: Ten Year Retrospective of Albert Kotin's Work, Long Island University; Brooklyn, New York; Kotin and Carton, Art Faculty two man show, Long Island University, Brooklyn;
• 1982: Albert Kotin, 1907-1980, Memorial Exhibition, Barron Arts Center, Woodbridge, New Jersey.

• 1935: Exhibition of Oil Paintings, WPA Federal Art Project, Federal Art Gallery, New York City;
• 1936: An American Group, Inc., New York City;
• 1946: First National Print Competition Exhibit, Associated American Artists, New York City;
• 1947: J & ER Pennell Exhibition of Prints, Library of Congress, Washington, DC;
• 1948: 46th Annual Exhibition, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia;
• 1949: 8 & 2 Exhibition, The New School for Social Research, New York City;
• 1951: '' 'Ninth Street Show' '', the first “New York Painting and Sculpture Annual”, New York City;
• 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957: "New York Painting and Sculpture Annual", Stable Gallery, New York City;
• 1956: Painters and Sculptors on 10th Street, Tanager Gallery, New York City;
• 1957: First Spring Annual Exhibition, March Gallery, New York City;
• 1958: A to Z in American Arts, Provincetown Arts Festival, M. Knoedler & Co., New York City; Camino Gallery, New York City;
• 1959: 10th Street, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas;
• 1960: New York Artists: A Drawing Show, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois; Galerie Iris Clert, Paris, France; Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Canada;
• 1960-61: Mili-Jay Gallery, Woodstock, New York;
• 1961: Allyn Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri;
• 1962, 1972: Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York;
• 1963: Multiples, Graham Gallery, New York City, New York; Key Gallery, New York City;
• 1963-64: "Hans Hofmann and His Students", circ. by the Museum of Modern Art, New York City;
• 1963, 1964: Aegis Gallery, New York City;
• 1965: “79 painters who paint”, held simultaneously in: Grace Borgenicht, Graham, Martha Jackson, Kornblee and Poindexter Galleries, New York City;
• 1966: "New York '66," College Museum, Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia;
• 1971: Roko Gallery, New York City;
• 1994: "Reclaiming Artists of the New York School. Toward a More Inclusive View of the 1950s ”, Baruch College City City University, New York City; New York-Provincetown: A 50s Connection, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts;
• 2004: "Reuniting an Era Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s.", Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois.

• Marika Herskovic, American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism: Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless (New York School Press, 2009.) ISBN 978-0-9677994-2-1 . pp. 140-143
• Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4 . pp. 190—193
• Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6 . p. 16; p. 37; pp. 206-209
• Marika Herskovic, Albert Kotin American Abstract Expressionist of the 1950s (New York School Press, 2016.) ISBN 978-0-9677994-3-8