Jan Matulka

Jan Matulka was an abstract expressionist and landscape painter and printmaker, born in Vlachovo Brezi, Bohemia (now Czechia). His family immigrated to the United States in 1907, where he took up study at the National Academy of Design. His first one-man exhibition was held at The Art Center in New York in 1926, and he was featured in a joint show with Stuart Davis, John Graham and Arshile Gorky in 1931 at the Art Students' League, where he had formally taught. Matulka also did work for the WPA in the 1930s. Sadly, the death of his sister and other personal turmoil led him to shy away from the public eye by the end of the 1930s, and although he continued to work, his name fell into obscurity. It wasn’t until near the end of his life that the public began to remember, thanks to a retrospective show for David Smith, who named Matulka as one of his greatest influences. The Whitney Museum held a retrospective show for Matulka in 1979.