Colin Greenly

Colin Greenly (1928–2014) was a visual artist active in the United States during the late 20th century and early 21st century.

Biography (Bernard) Colin Greenly was born in London, England on January 21, 1928. He received his B.A. in 1948 from Harvard College. He studied at Columbia University School of Painting and Sculpture from 1951 to 1953. He also studied at the American University Graduate School of Fine Arts in 1956.

Early Education and Teaching In 1947, while a student at Harvard University, Greenly's first exhibit was an ink drawing at the Fogg Museum of Art. Upon graduation and after a three-year foray working in the field of advertising, he quit his job to attend Columbia University School of Painting and Sculpture from 1951–53, studying painting and sculpture under Professors Peppino Mangravite, Oronzio Maldarelli, and others. In 1953, Greenly moved to the Washington DC area to take a part-time teaching position at the Potomac School in McLean, VA. From 1954-1956, Greenly taught at the US. Department of Agriculture Graduate School.

Career

Early Recognition His first major show was the "Young American Printmakers" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in 1953. He also took part in a three-man show of woodcuts at the Bader Gallery in Washington DC and won a Purchase Prize in 1956 from the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

In 1958 he was invited to become a charter member of the Jefferson Place Gallery in Washington DC with Ken Noland and others, where he had solo shows in 1958, 1960, 1963 and 1965.

Greenly's Primary Transitional Symbol proved to be an extremely rare visual and mathematical discovery. James Harithas cites a parallel (and completely independent) scientific development occurring in the same period by Danish mathematician Piet Hein in 1965. In the 1970s, Greenly revisited the shape and created a series of paintings. In 1971 he received a commission to paint a large-scale Transitional Symbol directly on the wall of the Everson Museum of Art.

By 1964, Greenly began to look for a way to increase the scale of his acrylic sculptures and eliminate the support bases "to avoid visual interference from the required pedestal" and turned to creating rectangular progressions on a somewhat larger scale. Thickness limitations of the acrylic sheet material in 1967 led him toward the use of painted polystyrene as a lighter weight, scalable solution.

To benefit the funding of the Cooper-Hewitt in 1974, Nelson Rockefeller contributed for auction P.M., a black lucite sculpture by Greenly.

Selected works

Wishbone House Wishbone House is a "six-foot high precast concrete A-shaped frame that encouraged both active climbing and quiet play in the shaded bench within." Greenly's design for Wishbone House won the Corcoran Gallery School of Art's National Playground Sculpture Competition in 1967, with subsequent installation in a Washington, D.C. playground. The competition featured submissions from 371 entries, including artists Mark di Suvero and Isamu Noguchi, among others, and was partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. This work was featured in the book "Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000",

Glass Sculpture

In 1967, Greenly discovered the reflective qualities of aluminum-edged clear glass. These works are described as "angular constructions of metal-framed plate glass in which reflected images play a salient role" in Encyclopedia of World Art. Shown at the Henri Gallery in 1969, Greenly employed extruded aluminum joined by screws.

Hulse Barn In 1978, Greenly, together with his second wife, Laurie Greenly, (m. 1976,) purchased the dilapidated but still structurally intact 1878 Hulse family dairy barn in Campbell Hall, New York, Both were directly engaged in the demolition, renovation, and reconstruction of the barn itself and three supporting structures over the course of ten years, as well as the construction of additional studio space, surrounding gardens, and works documenting their progress.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Source: 1968,1970, Royal Marks Gallery, NYC 1971, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY 1972, Andrew Dickson White Museum, Cornell University, NY, "Intangible Sculpture" 1965, Eleanor Rigelhaupt Gallery, Boston MA, "Black and White" 1965, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Washington DC, "Art in Washington" 1965, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, "White on White" 1965, Daniels Gallery, NYC, "Plastics"

Awards, Prizes and Commissions

Awards and Prizes

Source: 1993, NY State Decentralization Grant administered by the Arts Council of Orange County 2014, State of New York Legislative Resolution Celebrating the 60 Year Career of Colin Greenly

Commissions

Source:

1958, Sculpture Relief, Langley School, McLean, Virginia 1961, Sculpture Relief, Experiment in International Living, Putney, Vermont 1967, "Wishbone House", Playground sculpture, Washington DC, Potomac School, VA, Toronto, Canada, Syracuse, NY, and other sites. 1970, "Colorline" event for the Corcoran School of Art in a one-acre city park in Washington DC 1971, "Colorline" event in cooperation with the Syracuse University School of Architecture, Community Plaza 1971, Wall painting, Primary Transitional Symbol, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY 1972, Eight Color Panels, County Executive Office Building, Onondaga County, NY, executed under the artist's direction, Public Service Teaching Program, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY 1973, Twelve Color Panels, New York State Office Building, Utica, NY, executed under the artist's direction by students at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 1975, Participatory murals: Melrose Mott Haven Senior Center, Bronx, NY and the Rockaway Park Senior Center, Rockaway Pk, NY, Funded by CAPS and the Fund for the City of New York 2009, 1964, "Cloudlines" Aluminum sculpture, Jeffery J. Sherman Arts Center, Langley School, McLean, VA