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Accession #	78.265
Artist	Ilya Bolotowsky
Title	Opalescent Vertical
Date	1955
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	34 × 11 in. (86.4 × 27.9 cm) frame: 37 × 14 × 3 in. (94 × 35.6 × 7.6 cm)
Signed	Lower right: "Ilya Bolotowsky / 55"
Credit Line	Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Brandt
Location	American Identities: Everyday Life / A Nation Divided

Curatorial Remarks: In 1923 Ilya Bolotowsky immigrated with his family to New York from Saint Petersburg. By 1936 he had completed his training at the National Academy of Design, painted his first nonobjective work, and become a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group. Opalescent Vertical is a nearly monochromatic meditation on straight lines and pure forms inspired by the art of Piet Mondrian; abstractions like this one would have been denounced at the time in the Soviet Union, where the censors only recognized Socialist Realism as true Soviet art.