Albert Swinden | Biography | Hollis Taggart Galleries

Albert Swinden (1901-1961)

Albert Swinden was born in Birmingham, England, in 1901, and immigrated to Canada and then, as a young man, to Chicago, to study at the Art Institute. In the mid-1920s he relocated to New York City to continue his studies at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League, where he took classes with Hans Hofmann. He drew inspiration from Synthetic Cubism and Neoplasticism, developing a non-objective geometric style.

From the moment that the American Abstract Artists began to form, Swinden was a driving force of the group. In 1935, he, along with his friends Rosalind Bengelsdorf, Ibram Lassaw, and Byron Browne, began meeting in Bengelsdorf’s studio to explore the possibility of exhibiting their work together. Over the next year, this core group reached out to other abstract artists including Diller, Balcomb Greene, George McNeil, and Harry Holtzman, who in turn recruited many more artists including Bolotowsky, Drewes, Morris, Vytlacil, and Zogbaum. Through meetings held at Swinden’s studio on 13th Street, which he shared with Balcomb Greene, they officially formed the organization the American Abstract Artists in 1937. Meetings continued to be held there until a fire destroyed the studio and much of Swinden’s and Greene’s work in 1940. In 1938 Swinden contributed an essay for the American Abstract Artists Yearbook entitled “On Simplification.” It is a rare reflection upon his art; few examples of his writing remain.

Like many other artists of the period, Swinden worked on murals for the WPA’s Federal Art Project, including an abstract mural for the Williamsburg Housing Project. Swinden turned to figurative painting after 1955. He died in 1961.