Syd Solomon, Concealed and Revealed

Syd Concealed and Revealed is a 96-page hardcover exhibition catalogue with 36 color plates accompanying the traveling museum exhibition, Syd Concealed and Revealed. The exhibition opened at the Deland Museum Florida (2016) and traveled to the Greenville County Museum, South Carolina (2017); Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York (2018); and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida (2019-2021). Newly discovered materials from the Solomon Archive detail how Syd Solomon’s World War II camouflage designs and other early graphic arts skills were foundational to his unique approach to Abstract Expressionism. This new information furthers the understanding of Syd Solomon’s life and work. This exhibition was organized by the Estate of Syd Solomon in conjunction with Berry Campbell, New York. This exhibition catalogue features essays by Michael Auping (former Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and curator of recent exhibitions of Frank Stella and Mark Bradford), Dr. Gail Levin (expert on Lee Krasner and Edward Hopper), George Bolge (Director Emeriti of the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida) and Mike Solomon, (artist and the artist’s son). Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Syd Solomon voluntarily joined the War effort as a camouflage expert in the United States Army (1941-1945). His camouflage designs were used during the Normandy invasion and his camouflage instruction manuals were distributed throughout the U.S. Army. Although he arrived to the Abstract Expressionist scene late because of the War, by 1959 his work had gained the admiration of Museum of Modern Art curators, Peter Selz and Dorothy C. Miller, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s director, John Baur, and many others, including artists Philip Guston and James Brooks, who became lifelong friends. At this time, Syd Solomon’s paintings entered into over 100 museum collections.