“The human being is the link between God and the material world…Even a little waste piece of plastic or a bone is just as much alive as the abstract concept of God, which is meaningless unless it is incarnated.”[i]

Born in 1916 in Manila, the Philippines, Alfonso Ossorio traveled to England at the age of eight with his mother and brothers. He attended Catholic boarding schools there before moving to the United States in 1930, where he continued his studies at Portsmouth Priory in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1933, Ossorio became a naturalized U.S. citizen and enrolled at Harvard University the following year. Heir to a sugar fortune, Ossorio began acquiring art during his undergraduate years, and soon became a dedicated collector; he would continue to expand and hone his collection for the rest of his life. In 1936, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University held an exhibition of the collection he had begun to amass, which included works by Thomas Derrick, Eric Gill, Philip Hagreen, David Jones, and Denis Tegetmeier. He also cultivated a serious studio art practice in these years, illustrating the covers of two books of poetry by Arthur Rimbaud published in 1937. In 1938, he received his BA after successful completion of his senior thesis, Spiritual Influences on the Visual Image of Christ. As Harvard’s art program focused on the history of art rather than artistic practice, Ossorio took studio art classes at the Rhode Island School of Design for a year. In 1939, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Manhattan commissioned him for a work depicting the twelve apostles of Christ. His first solo exhibition took place in 1941, at the Wakefield Gallery, a small space run by Betty Parsons in the Wakefield Bookshop on East 55th Street, New York. In 1943, he enlisted in the US Army and served as a medical illustrator. After an honorable discharge from the army in 1946, Ossorio settled in New York, initially living at the Chelsea Hotel. In the summer of 1948, he met Ted Dragon, who would become his lifelong partner. Ossorio first encountered the nascent abstract expressionist movement in these years; in 1949 he purchased his first painting by Jackson Pollock. Ossorio, Pollock, and Lee Krasner quickly became good friends, and Ossorio became an important early patron and champion of the couple’s work.

Ossorio’s work of the early 1940s was dominated by still lifes, landscapes, and portraits executed with haunting detail and an unnerving precision of line in a visual style that the artist described as “a kind of super-realism.”[ii] In the late 1940s, he began to explore abstraction, forming vital friendships with New York School artists such as Pollock and Krasner, as well as art brut painter Jean Dubuffet, whose work he also collected. Despite their disparate styles and concerns, Pollock and Dubuffet each inspired Ossorio to reach inward for inspiration, rather than starting with an object or scene external to himself. Ossorio’s detailed surrealistic evolved toward a more abstract and overtly expressionistic approach, while his subject matter began to address “problems which religion covers, such as birth, sex, death”.[iii] His growing interest in abstraction also coincided with his discovery of psychoanalyst Nandor Fodor’s The Search for the Beloved—A Clinical Investigation of the Trauma of Birth and Pre-Natal Conditioning, a pseudoscientific text that theorized a pregnant mother could telepathically influence the mind and body of her unborn child; the artist was especially interested in Fodor’s description of human gestation and birth as violent, traumatic processes.

In 1950, Ossorio traveled to Victorias, Negros—his first time returning to the Philippines since he was ten years old. The return to his childhood homeland opened old wounds from Ossorio’s youth, calling up memories of racial discrimination, conflict about his sexuality, and his devoutly Catholic upbringing. The artist spent ten months in the small mill town painting a mural for the Chapel of St. Joseph the Worker titled The Angry Christ. Inspired by the flood of memories that returned to him while in Victorias, Ossorio also produced a stunning set of wax resist works on paper addressing the subjects of childhood, birth, sexuality, mythology, and religion. Notable for their hot, intensely saturated colors, pierced or jagged formal characteristics and pulsating energy, the series was exhibited at Studio Paul Facchetti Paris the following year after Dubuffet introduced Ossorio to eminent critic and curator Michel Tapié.[iv]

Ossorio spent much of 1951 in Paris with Dubuffet, who was writing a monograph on the artist titled Peintures intiatiques d’Alfonso Ossorio. He returned to the United States in August and purchased the East Hampton estate known as the Creeks, an Italianate mansion that he transformed into “the Eighth Wonder of the Horticultural World.” He also agreed to house the entire collection of the Compagnie de l’Art Brut that Dubuffet had assembled; the collection would remain at the Creeks until 1962. Throughout the 1950s Ossorio was a vital force within the abstract expressionist movement in both artistic and curatorial capacities. He wrote the introduction for the exhibition catalogue accompanying Pollock’s “black and white” show at Betty Parsons Gallery in 1951, and from 1956 to 1958 he organized a series of exhibitions for Executive House, New York, which featured work by Pollock, Dubuffet, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Mark Rothko and David Smith, among others. From 1957 through 1961 Ossorio ran the Signa Gallery in East Hampton along with Elisabeth Parker and John Little, where they mounted a series of summer exhibitions and symposia.

In the early 1960s, Ossorio began to create the visionary assemblages that became his most well-known body of work. He referred to the works as “congregations,” as he explained to art historian Forrest Selvig in 1968: “I have taken to calling them congregations simply because they all work together and the parts are unified to a final end, working for one final effect.”[v] While the title is clearly replete with religious associations resonant with the artist’s lifelong fascination with Christianity, the artist also preferred the term for its vernacular connotations of collectivity and spiritual harmony. Bounded by deep wooden frames, Ossorio’s Congregation assemblages bring together a vast array of found objects including glass eyes, shells, shards, pearls, feathers, and driftwood, often synthesizing beauty with decay and refinement with crudeness, effectively reanimating—or even resurrecting—castoff objects as a precious, vivid artwork. Like their parochial counterpart, Ossorio’s Congregations are simultaneously unified and atomized; as art historian Kent Minturn has explained,

[v] Ossorio, Oral history interview

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Akland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
The Alternative Museum, New York, NY
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Ateneo de Manila University Art Gallery, Quezon City, The Philippines
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Holland
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME
The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Finch College Museum of Art, New York, NY
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY
Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Southampton College, NY
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI
Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
International Center of Aesthetic Research, Turin, Italy
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL
L’Art Brut Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Munich Modern Art Museum, Munich, Germany
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL
Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington, DC
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greenboro, NC
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

1941
Alfonso Ossorio, Drawings and Watercolors, Wakefield Gallery, New York, NY
Alfonso Ossorio, Paintings and Drawings, Wakefield Gallery, New York, NY

1945
Watercolors by Alfonso Ossorio, Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York, NY

1951
Alfonso Ossorio, Michel Tapie, Studio Paul Fachetti, Paris, France
Alfonso Ossorio, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY; 1953, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961

1958
Alfonso Ossorio, Robert Keene Gallery, Southampton, New York, NY

1960
Alfonso Ossorio, Galerie Stadler, Paris, France; 1961

1961
Alfonso Ossorio, Cordier-Stadler, Frankfurt, Germany
Ossorio: A Selection 1941-1961, Cordier & Warren Gallery, New York, NY

1963
Alfonso Ossorio, Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY; 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972

1968
Works of Alfonso Ossorio, Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Southampton, NY

1973
Garden Sculpture by Alfonso Ossorio, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY

1974
Alfonso Ossorio, Selection of Works, 1940-1971, Berkeley Center, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT
Alfonso Ossorio, Tower Gallery, Southampton, NY;
1980

Alfonso Ossorio, The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT

1980
Alfonso Ossorio, 1940-1980, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Selected Works: 1940-1980, Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

1982
Alfonso Ossorio, Recent Watercolors, Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY

1984
Bioscapes, Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY; San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA

1985
Could I Ask You Something? Etchings for the Lewis Thomas Book Golden Legend Inc., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Alfonso Ossorio, Works on Paper/Constructions 1981-1985, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL

1991
Alfonso Ossorio, 1916-1990, Jennifer Pinto & Vanderwoude-Tananbaum Gallery, New York, NY
Alfonso Ossorio: The Victorias Drawings, 1950, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Springs, NY
Alfonso Ossorio: A Legacy, Works from 1934 through 1990, Benton Gallery, Southampton, NY

1992
Alfonso Ossorio, Peintures 1950-53, Zabriskie Galerie, Paris, France
Alfonso Ossorio, Drawings 1940-48: The Anatomy of a Surrealist Sensibility, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1993
Alfonso Ossorio, Works from the 1960s, Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY

1995
Alfonso Ossorio, Sculpture from the 1960s, Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY
The Recovery Drawings of Alfonso Ossorio, Arlene Bujese Gallery, East Hampton, NY

1996
Reflection and Redemption: The Surrealist Art of Alfonso Ossorio, 1939-1949, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

1997
Alfonso Ossorio: Congregations, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Alfonso Ossorio: The Shingle Figures, 1962-63, Michael Rosenfeld, Gallery, New York, NY

1998
Alfonso Ossorio: Master Prints, 1932-1990, Ossorio Foundation, Southampton, NY
Alfonso Ossorio: The Child Returns, 1950-Philippines, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

1999
Alfonso Ossorio: The Dance: Ballet and Costume Designs, 1935-48, Ossorio Foundation, Southampton, NY

2000
Alfonso Ossorio: The Creeks: Before, During and After, Ossorio Foundation, Southampton, NY

2001
ROAD: Alfonso Ossorio’s Response to Jackson Pollock’s Death, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East  Hampton, NY
Synergy: Alfonso Ossorio & Jackson Pollock, 1950-1951, Ossorio Foundation, Southampton, NY; Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC

2002
Alfonso Ossorio: Horror Vacui: Filling the Void - A Fifty Year Survey, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Alfonso Ossorio: The Dance: Ballet and Costume Designs, 1935-48, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS

2007
Alfonso Ossorio: Masterworks from the Collection of the Robert U. Ossorio Foundation, Michael Rosenfeld  Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2013      
Alfonso Ossorio: Blood Lines, 1949-1953, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2016
Alfonso Ossorio: Afflictions of Glory, León Gallery, Makati City, Philippines
Alfonso Ossorio Congregations, 1959-1969: A Centennial Celebration, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2018
Alfonso Ossorio: A Survey, 1940-1989, Ayala Museum, Makati City, Phillippines

1940
Contemporary Religious Art, Georgette Passedolt Gallery, New York, NY
Flower Paintings by New England Artists, George R. Shaw Galleries, Boston, MA

1950
Christmas Show, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY

1952
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; 1955, 1956, 1957
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

1953
Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art, The Church of the Ascension, New York, NY
Selection from 12 East Hampton Collections, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
17 East Hampton Artists, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, NY
Opposing Forces, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England

1954
7th Annual Art Exhibition, Art Association of the Philippines, Manila, The Philippines
15 Artists of the Region, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, NY
Rive Droite, Paris, France

1955
4th Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, The Stable Gallery, New York, NY
Ten Years, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY

1956
An Exhibition of Painting & Sculpture, Executive House Gallery, New York, NY
The 2nd in a Series of Exhibitions of Paintings & Sculpture, Executive House Gallery, New York, NY

1957
Opening Exhibition, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Artists of the Region, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Italian and American Artists, New York Art Foundation, Rome, Italy
The 6th in a Series of Exhibitions of Painting & Sculpture, Executive House Gallery, New York, NY
A Review of the Season, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Figure & Vision: The 7th in a Series of Exhibitions of Painting & Sculpture, Executive House Gallery, New York, NY
1957 Annual Exhibition: Sculpture, Paintings, Watercolors, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1958
Vision of A Man, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Artist’s Vision: 1948-1958, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
The Human Image, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
An International Selection, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY

1959
Recent Gifts and Purchases, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Arte Nouva, Palazzo Graneric, Torino, Italy
Art: USA:59, A Force, a Language, a Frontier, American Art Expositions, New York, NY
The Animate Space, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
3rd Exhibition 1959, A Selection of Painting and Sculpture, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Ossorio: Paintings & Collages, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY

1960
New Forms, New Media, Junk Art, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, NY
Gutai, International Sky Festival, Osaka, Japan
Form Strukter Bedetuntg, Stadtische Galerie, Munich (Lenbachpalais), Germany
Opening Exhibition, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Second Exhibition, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Third Exhibition, Signa Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Baroque Ensemblistes, International Center of Aesthetic Research, Turin, Italy

1961
New New York Scene, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., Carnegie International, London, England
The Art of Assemblage, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Paintings and Sculpture, Cordier and Warren Gallery, New York, NY
Contemporary Paintings Selected from 1960-61 New York Gallery, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

1962
Painting and Sculpture Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Strutture E Stile (Structures and Style, Paints and Sculpture of 42 artists of Europe, America and Japan), Galerie Civita d’Arte Moderna, Torino, Italy
East Hampton Collectors, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY

1963
Drawings and Sculpture, Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY
Toys by Artists, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY

1964
Cinquante Ans de Collages, Musee d’Art ed de l’industrie, Paris, France; Documenta III, Kassel, Germany
For Eyes & Ears, Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY
Festival of the Arts Exhibition, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Artists Select, Finch College Museum of Art, New York, NY
Artists for CORE: Third Annual Art Exhibition and Sale, Gallery of American Federation of Arts, American Federation of Arts, New York, NY

1965
12th Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL
Art of the U.S, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1966
Hommage a Caussa, Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY
Soloists, Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY
Contemporary American Sculpture-Selection I, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
26th Annual Exhibition Society for Contemporary American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
7 Decades 1895-1965, Crosscurrents in Modern Art, Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY
Feast and Famine, Permanent Collection Gallery, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Artists for CORE Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund, Fifth Annual Exhibition and Sale, Grippi & Waddell Gallery, New York, NY

1967
Art in Process: The Visual Development of a Collage, Finch College Museum of Art, New York, NY
Toys Old and New, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Campo Vitale, Centro Internazionale delle Arti e del Costume, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
The Little Show, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Artists of the Region, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY

1968
The Door, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY; Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY
Betty Parsons’ Private Collection, Finch College Museum of Art, New York, NY
Dada, Surrealism and their Heritage, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
New Art USA, Baroque – Minimal, Munich Modern Art Museum, Munich, Germany
Painting and Sculptures to Benefit Israel Emergency Fund, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, NY
Splash! Fountains by 11 Sculptors of the Region, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
1968 Annual Exhibition, Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1969
Human Concern, Personal Torment, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture to Benefit Israel Emergency Fund, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, NY
The New American Painting and Sculpture: First Generation, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
French, American and Mexican Modern Painting, Drawing & Sculpture, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, NY
Blocked Metaphors, Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY

1970
Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture and Jewelry, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, NY
Artists of Suffolk County, Part II, The Abstract Tradition, Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY
Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1971
Regards, Galerie Messine, Paris, France
Intimate Selections of the American Spirit 1, Willard Gallery, New York, NY
Inner Spaces, Outer Limits, Myth and Myth Makers, Compass Gallery, New York, NY; Lerner-Misrachi Gallery, New York, NY
Open Air Sculpture by Artists of the Region, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
20th Century Painting & Sculpture from New York University, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY

1972
Summer of ’72, Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY

1974
Twelve Artists, Tower Gallery, Southampton, NY
Then and Now, Artists of the Region: Early and Late Works, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Jean Paulhan à travers ses peintres, Grand Palais, Paris, France

1975
Artists of the Hamptons: Paintings and Sculpture, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY; Sotheby
Parke-Bernet, New York, NY
Martha Jackson Collection at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

1976
Long Island Sculptors, Firehouse Gallery, Nassau Community College, State University of New York, Garden City, NY
30th Anniversary: Artists of the First 10 Years, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY
23rd Annual Art Auction to benefit the Women’s Campaign United, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, NY
Exhibition of Liturgical Arts, 41st International Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia, PA
Artists and East Hampton: A 100 Year Perspective, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Part II Inaugural Exhibition: Painting and Sculpture from the New York Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
The Object as Poet, Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC

1977
30 Years of American Art, 1945-1075, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
6th Annual Group Show, Tower Gallery, Southampton, NY
Fall 1997: Contemporary Collectors, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
Contemporary Religious Art, The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York, NY

1980
Selections from a Growing Permanent Collection, Housatonic Museum of Art, Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, CT
Fire & Water: Paper as Art, The Visionary’s Tool for Transformation, Rockland Center for the Arts,
West Nyack, NY
17 Abstract Artists of East Hampton: The Pollock Years 1945-56, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Portraits Real and Imagined, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY

1981
East Hampton/New York: New York Museum Salute Guild Hall, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. Gallery, New York, NY
Classic Americans, XX Century Painters & Sculptors, Stamford Museum & Nature Center, Stamford, CT

1982
Found Objects, Marisa Del Re, New York, NY
Twenty-five Artists, Phoenix II, Washington, DC
American Artists Abroad 1900-1982, Washburn Gallery, New York, NY
Poets and Artists, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Androgyny in Art, Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, NY

1983
Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greenboro, NC
The Fertility Imperative, Cocalon Gallery, New York, NY
Matthew Hamilton Inaugural Exhibition, Matthew Hamilton Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
30th Annual Art Auction: Benefit United Jewish Appeal-Federation, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, NY
The Sculptor as Draftsman, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Fragment/Fragmentary/Fragmentation, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT

1984
20th Century American Drawing: The Figure in Context, International Exhibits Foundation, Washington, DC
Calligraffiti, Leila Taghinia-Milani Gallery, New York, NY
Some Major Artists of The Hamptons, Then & Now, Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY
Exhibition, Bologna/Landi Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Out of Context, Thorpe Intermedia Gallery, Sparkill, NY
Collision, University of Houston, Houston, TX

1985
Eight Modern Masters, Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX
Connections, Leila Taghinia-Milani Gallery, New York, NY
30 Ans de Reontres, Derecheridies, de Partis Pris, Galerie Stadler, Paris, France

1986
Other Gods: Containers of Belief, New York, NY, Washington, DC; New Orleans, LA; Los Angeles, CA
Jung and Abstract Expressionism: The Collective Image among Individual Voices, Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, NY
The 1950s, American Artists in Paris, Part III, Denise Cade Gallery, Art Prospect, Inc., New York, NY
Repulsion: Aesthetics of the Grotesque, The Alternative Museum, New York, NY
Winter Exhibit, Bologna/Landi Gallery, East Hampton, NY1986
Elders of the Tribe, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, NY; University Art Gallery, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY; Nabisco Brands Gallery, East Hanover, NJ; Davenport Art Gallery, Davenport, IA; FHP Hippodrome Gallery, Long Beach, CA; Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL; DeLand Museum of Art, DeLand, FL; Clara M. Eagle Gallery, Price Doyle Fine Arts Center, Murray State University, Murray, KY; Prichard Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID; University Gallery of Fine Art, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX; Joseph and Margaret Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA; NCOA Gallery Patina, The National Council on the Aging, Washington, DC

1987
Hamptons in Winter, Gallery International 52, New York, NY
Assemblage, Kent Fine Art, Gallery, New York, NY
20th Century Drawings, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
20th Annual Springs Invitational Show, Ashawagh Hall, Springs, NY
The Eloquent Object, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, OK; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
Contemporary American Collage 1960-1986, Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

1988
Drawing on the East End, 1940-1988, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

1989
Donations Daniel Cordier, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

1990
Magicite Informelle, Galerie 16, Paris, France
Watercolors from the Abstract Expressionist Era, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
13th Anniversary, Vered Gallery, East Hampton, NY
East Hampton Avant-Garde, A Salute to the Signa Gallery, 1957-1960, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Three Generations, Benton Gallery, Southampton, NY
Long Island Collects, The Figure & Landscape, 1870s–1980s, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY

1991
The Nude: Drawings of the Figure by New York School Artists, Twining Gallery, New York, NY
Aspects of Collage, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
On Paper, Of Paper, Benton Gallery, Southampton, NY
Black and White, Renee Fotouhi Fine Arts East, East Hampton, NY
Biomorphic and Surreal: 1930 - 1960. Ossorio, Stamos, Kupferman, Vail, Kamrowski, Gorky, Gottlieb, Bolotowsky, Beth Urdang Gallery, Chicago, IL
Art on Paper 1991, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC

1992
Paths to Discovery, The New York School, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, City University, New York, NY
Personages, Benton Gallery, Southampton, NY
Mssr. B’s Curio Shop, Threadwaxing Space, New York, NY
Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Kunsthalle, Basil, Switzerland
Surrealism Embodied: The Figure in American Art, 1933 - 1953, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

1993
Multiples, Benton Gallery, Southampton, NY
The Collection: Abstract Expressionism, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
On Paper: The Figure in 20th Century American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Lines & Myths: Abstraction in American Art, 1941-45, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

1994
Reclaiming Artists of the New York School: Toward a More Inclusive View of the 1950s, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, NY
Michel Tapie: Un Art Autre, Artcurial, Paris, France
Counterpoints: American Art 1930-1945, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
On Paper/Of Paper, Arlene Bejuse Gallery, East Hampton, NY
In Memory of a Friendship: A Collaboration Between Dr. Lewis Thomas and Alfonso Ossorio, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, NY
American Fantastica: Surrealism in American, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
In Memory of Douglas Morse Howell, Washburn Gallery, New York, NY

1995
Accrochage, Zabriskie Gallery, Paris, France
Multiples, Arlene Bujese Gallery, East Hampton, NY

1996
20 Years of Collecting Art at the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC
Mother and Child: A Contemporary View, Arlene Bujese Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Milieu: Part II, Asian American Arts Center, New York, NY

1997
Dark Images, Bright Prospects: The Survival of the Figure After World War II, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Facets of the Figure, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Surrealism in American Art: 1932-1949, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
Between, Selections from the Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1998
The Surrealist Vision: Europe and the Americas, The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
The Sixties and Seventies, Ubu Gallery, New York, NY
Essence of the Orb, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Sea Change, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Surrealist Drawings, Danese Gallery, New York, NY
Gifts for a New Century, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
L’Art Brut, de la clandestine a la consecration, Museum of Ethnography, Geneva, Switzerland;
Shillermuseum, Germany; Le Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
Twentieth Century American Drawings, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK; Sunrise Museums, Charleston, WV; Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, FL; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN; Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID

1999
Shaping a Generation: The Art and Artists of Betty Parsons, Hechscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
Linear Impulse, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; Knoxville Museum, Knoxville, TN
Surrealism in America During the 1930s and 1940s: Selections from the Penny and Elton Yasuna Collection, Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL; Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Cape Museum of Fine Art, Cape Denis, MA
The Surrealists in Exile and the Origin of the New York School, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
“As America As…”: 100 Works from the Collection of the Parrish Art Museum and Keith Sonnier: Tri-Parrish, Parish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Postmodern Transgressions: Artists Working Beyond the Frame, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Impossible Landscapes of the Mind, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY

2000
From the Molecular to the Galactic: The Art of Max Ernst and Alfonso Ossorio, Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: The First Decade, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
The Hamptons After Pollock, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY
American Art Today: Fantasies & Curiosities, Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL

2001
Flora: In Reverence of Nature, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Five Decades of East Hampton Artists, Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY
1950-1965: Abstraction on Paper, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Abstract Expressionism-Expanding the Canon, Gary Snyder Fine Art, New York, NY
Rupture & Revision: Collage in America, Pavel Zoubok, Inc, New York, NY
2001 Collector’s Show, The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Mary Leigh Black Museum of Art

2002
Transitions at Mid-Century, Works on Paper 1945-1955, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The "Irascibles" and the New York School, Mestre, Centro Culturale Candiani/Musei Civini Veneziani, Venice, Italy

2003
The 1940s: Modern American Art & Design, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Some Assemblage Required: Collage Culture in Post-War America, Madison Art Center, Madison, WI; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL

2004
Building on Strength: Recent Acquisitions of Drawings, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA

2005
Surrealism USA, National Academy Museum, New York, NY; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Artists and Nature on Eastern Long Island: 1940s to the Present, Spanierman Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Organic New York, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
The Second Time Around: The Art of Recycling Spring, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA
Eye Contact: Painting and Drawing in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2006
Pre–Post, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY
Lines of Discovery: 225 Years of American Drawings, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA; Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK

2007
Suitcase Paintings: Small Scale Works by Abstract Expressionists, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY
Body Beware: 18 American Artists, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Surrealism:  Dreams on Canvas, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY

2008
Sand: Memory, Meaning and Metaphor, The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
Mirror Mirror:  Fine Art/Decorative Art, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY
Repartir à Zéro, 1945-1949 (Starting from Scratch), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, France
Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900-1970, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Highlights from the Prints and Drawings Collection, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME

2009
Image Matter, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY
Layered / Boxed, Nohra Haime Gallery, New York, NY
Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

2010
Unconscious Unbound: Surrealism in America, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

2011
Splendor of Dynamic Structure: Celebrating 75 Years of the American Abstract Artists, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Evolution in Action, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Abstract Expressionism: Reloading the Canon, A Selection of Paintings and Sculpture, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Otherworldliness, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Hamptons Artists: Then and Now, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, NY

2012
INsite/INchelsea: The Inaugural Exhibition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Dubuffet and the Art Brut, Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York, NY
…On Paper, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2013
Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, and Dubuffet, The Phillips Collection Washington, DC; Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY
Drawing Surrealism, Los Angeles County Museum of, Art, Los Angeles, CA; Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY

2013
Abstract Expressionism / In Context: Seymour Lipton, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2014
Solitary Soul, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2015
America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
It’s Never Just Black or White, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2016     
Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945-1965, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Why Draw? 500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors at Bowdoin College, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME

2017
Figuratively Speaking, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2018
Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera, The Met Breuer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

2019
Wise Men Fished Here: A Centennial Exhibition in Honor of the Gotham Book Mart, 1920-2020, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Spiritual by Nature, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Singapore Biennale 2019: Every Step in the Right Direction, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Abstract Expressionism Revisited: Selections from the Guild Hall Museum Permanent Collection, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Globalism Pops BACK Into View: The Rise of Abstract Expressionism, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2020      
Paper Power, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Divining Spirits: Sex, Religion, and Myth, Jeff Lincoln Art + Design, Southampton, NY
The Roots of Abstraction, Housatonic Museum of Art, Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, CT
Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

2021      
Surrealism in American Art, Centre de la Vielle Charité, Marseille, France
United States of Abstraction: American Artists in France, 1946-1964, Musée d’Arts de Nantes, Nantes, France; Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France
Distinctive/Instinctive: Postwar Abstract Painting, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
90 Years: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY
“Divided States of America,” Collection 1940s-1970s, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

2022
Graphic Eloquence: American Modernism on Paper from the Collection of Michael T. Ricker, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Towards Multiplicity, organized by the Sunpride Foundation, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
On the Nature of Things, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY
STUFF, organized by Arlene Shechet, Pace Gallery, New York, NY

2023
Pour, Tear, Carve: Material Possibilities in the Collection, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
American Watercolors, 1880-1990: Into the Light, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Come Closer: Selections from the Collection, 1978–1994, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville,  ME

2024
The Art of Assemblage, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Past-Forward: Modern and Contemporary Art from HoMA’s Collection, Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HI