Description
George Bryant Grammer, Jr., was a prolific painter from Texas who spent most of his career in New York City. He is known for painting landscapes and architectural subjects in a semi-abstract Modernist style. Born in Fort Worth, he studied art as what is now known as Texas Wesleyan University until 1947. There he was introduced by one of his professors to the Fort Worth Circle, a group of progressive artists who rejected traditional Texas subject matter in favor of Modernism. In the early 1950s he began a series of Cubist-inspired nocturnal landscapes, some featuring man-made structures. A painting from this period, Oil Derricks at Night (1952), is in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art. He first exhibited his work in a New York City gallery in 1951. In 1954 he moved to New York permanently after receiving a scholarship to study at the Art Students League. He also had a vacation home and studio in New Jersey. However, throughout his life he retained ties to Fort Worth and exhibited and sold his work there. He has often been included in retrospective exhibitions of the Fort Worth Circle artists, notably Intimate Modernism: Fort Worth Circle Artists in the 1940s, organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. In 2017 Texas Wesleyan University awarded him an honorary doctorate and presented a major solo retrospective of over 100 works, George Grammer: Full Circle. In addition to the university, Grammer’s paintings are represented in the permanent collections of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Old Jail Art Center, and San Antonio Art League & Museum.
Condition: Generally fine overall with only light wear.
Reference:
Barker, Scott Grant. “Grammer, George Bryant, Jr.” Texas State Historical Association. 30 January 2022. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/grammer-george-bryant-jr (27 September 2022).
