Michael Goldberg (1924 - 2008)

 Michael Goldberg, a second generation Abstract Expressionist painter, was born in 1924 in New York City, where his studies at the Art Students League, 1938-1942, were interrupted by World War II. After hazardous duty as a paratrooper in North Africa and Burma, he returned to New York, studying with Jose de Creeft and Hans Hofmann. With Hofmann as a teacher, Goldberg's artistic destiny was determined. His work was influenced by Hofmann, with whom he studied for two years, and by Matta and Arshile Gorky. But it was Willem de Kooning, and his use of fiery brushwork and explosive color, who would prove to be Goldberg's greatest influence.

However, like many contemporary abstractionists, Goldberg has explored a variety of styles and approaches. With anything and everything allowable in the modern aesthetic, and the tides of fashion and influence shifting so rapidly and completely, there has been no fundamental, pervasive, dependable artistic style, point-of-view or attitude to keep artists grounded and directed.

Therefore, it is not unexpected that Goldberg painted works as widely divergent from his Abstract Expressionist beginnings as monochromatic minimalist paintings, grids, calligraphy and pattern or stripe paintings.

Michael Goldberg's work is in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Baltimore Museum of Art; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; De Cordova and Dana Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among others.