Nathaniel J. Jacobson (1916–1996) was an American artist, educator and color theorist based in Boston.[1][2] He began his studies Museum of Fine Arts School, followed by the Massachusetts School of Art.[3] After graduating in 1938, Jacobson enrolled in Yale University's School of the Fine Arts,[4][5] receiving his BFA in 1941. Jacobson enlisted in the army in 1943 and after serving, the themes of his paintings turned towards his experience in Europe during World War II.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6f/Nathaniel_Jacobson%2C_%22The_Survivors%22_polymer_on_canvas%2C_1957.jpg/220px-Nathaniel_Jacobson%2C_%22The_Survivors%22_polymer_on_canvas%2C_1957.jpg)
Jacobson found early success as a painter when his paintings were exhibited at the Carnegie Institute in 1941 as part of its exhibition "Directions in American Painting."[6] Subsequently, his work was shown in New York at the Macbeth Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art[7] as well as The Arts Club of Chicago and Today's Art Gallery in Boston.[8]
As a student of Anna Hathaway, a follower of Albert Munsell, he developed his interest in color theory. In 1975 Jacobson published a popular middle school and high school art textbook, The Sense of Color.[9] Jacobson went on to work as a research associate at MIT, studying computer modeling of color combinations and exploring the human response to color.[10] In 2007, Jacobson was the subject of a retrospective exhibit "Color Demands a Response" at Hebrew College in Boston.[11]
In 1956 Jacobson travelled to Israel. The light and color he witnessed there transformed his work. He wrote, "Israel opened up ideas of color and light to me. There I found the extraordinary challenge of the brilliant light and how I could fit that into paint. My response to the light of Israel, and especially to the Negev, required a renovation of my palette. The light was abstract. The truth of it was the brilliance, and the fact that there was color only in the shadows."[11]
Major exhibitions in Jerusalem, New York City and Boston followed. In 1958, he had solo shows at the DeCordova Museum[12] in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Jewish Museum in New York City.[13] Dorothy Adlow reviewed DeCordova exhibit for The Christian Science Monitor: "These pictures of Israel express almost spectacularly the painter's reaction to the country and the people.... Sometimes the colors run to a ravishing brilliance.... Here is a genuinely exalted communication."[14]
References
edit- ^ Swartz, Sarah Silberstein (Winter 2008). "Color Demands a Response: The Art of Nathaniel J. Jacobson". Hebrew College Today. 22 (1): 9–10, 34, 43.
- ^ Bookbinder, Judith Arlene (2005). Boston Modern: Figurative Expressionism as Alternative Modernism. New Hampshire. p. 317. ISBN 978-1584654889.
- ^ "SCHOOL OF ART HAS GRADUATION: Exhibit of Students' Work to Be Continued Today". Daily Boston Globe. p. 23. ProQuest 820581949. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- ^ "Two Yale Students Get Painting Honors". The New York Times. October 14, 1941. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
- ^ Jacobson, Nathaniel J. (1941). Distortion of Form in Modern Painting. B.F.A. New Haven, CT.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Jewell, Edward Alden (October 26, 1941). "Carnegie: Work by Americans (Includes image of "The Bread of Affliction" painting)". The New York Times. p. 199. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
- ^ Jewell, Edward Alden (November 4, 1941). "At The Modern". The New York Times. p. 30. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
- ^ Philpott, A.J. (January 21, 1945). "This Week in the Art World: Jacobson Exhibition a Surprise". Daily Boston Globe. p. 20. ProQuest 839854267. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- ^ Jacobson, Nathaniel J. (1975). The sense of color : a portfolio in visuals. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. ISBN 0442240821.
- ^ Jacobson, N and, Bender, W. (1996). "Color as a determined communication". IBM Systems Journal. 35, NOS 3&4 (3.4): 526–538. doi:10.1147/sj.353.0526.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Nathaniel Jacobson: Color Demands a Response (exhibition catalog). Boston, MA: Hebrew College. 2007.
- ^ "Exhibition list: "The land of Israel: Paintings by Nathaniel Jacobson. March 9-April 6, 1958."" (PDF). The Trustees / Decordova Museum. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
- ^ "LOCAL GALLERIES LIST MANY SHOWS: Art of Past and Present Is Among Week's Group and One-Man Exhibitions". The New York Times. November 9, 1958. p. 125. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
- ^ Adlow, Dorothy (March 14, 1958). "Landscapes by Haseltine; Israel Scenes by Jacobson: Exhibition in Lincoln". The Christian Science Monitor. p. 9. ProQuest 509716757. Retrieved January 18, 2022.