Michael Goldberg was an American abstract expressionist painter and teacher known for his gestural action paintings, abstractions and still-life paintings. Born in 1924 and raised in the Bronx, he began taking Saturday art classes at the Art Students League in 1938. A gifted student, in 1939 Goldberg finished high school at the age of 14 and enrolled in City College. He soon found New York’s jazz scene to be a far more compelling environment, and he began skipping classes to frequent the Harlem jazz clubs near campus. Goldberg’s love of jazz would become a lifelong passion and a key component to his approach to composition in his paintings. From 1940 to 1942, like many of the leading artists of the New York School, Goldberg studied with Hans Hofmann. In 1943, he put his pursuit of painting on hold and enlisted in the US Army. Serving in North Africa, Burma, and India, Goldberg received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star before being discharged in 1946. After his service, he traveled and worked in Venezuela before returning to the United States, settling back into New York City, and resuming studies at the Art Students League and Hofmann’s school.

A veteran of World War II, Goldberg was one of the last few remaining survivors of the New York School; he was sometimes referred to as a member of the so-called "second generation" of Abstract Expressionists, although he began exhibiting his action paintings in important group shows in galleries in New York City in the early 1950s. During this time, he was a part of the painters’ circle that included Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and several others of the New York School. They gathered at The Eighth Street Club, a regular meeting place of modern artists working in and around Tenth Street in New York and sometimes at the Cedar Bar.

Michael Goldberg came into prominence in the late 1950s, early 1960s just as Color field painting, Hard-edge painting and Pop Art emerged onto centerstage. With the changing of fashions in the art world, his greatest accomplishments as a painter weren't sufficiently recognized, and as many of his generation his work was overlooked for many years. Although by the 1970s and 1980s his work began to achieve recognition and appreciation and he enjoyed a long, successful and a celebrated career as an abstract painter. Throughout his long career and into his mature years, he continued to teach, paint, and exhibit his art. Goldberg’s signature works are hallmarked by their expressive brushwork and free association abstraction, combining Western European painting traditions with Eastern philosophies and the cultural reservoir of post-war New York. “I’ve always felt that art comes out of art,” he said.

Executed around 1960, this gouache on board is a wonderful example of the artist’s earlier work. With a swirling and energetic vortex of brush marks, it encompasses all the vigor Goldberg’s works are known for. The palette, somber neutrals contrasting with primary colors, is typical of his best work. This work would likely have been executed in Rothko’s last studio which the Goldbergs had taken over. It had massive 25ft high ceilings in the landmark building 222 Bowery, and Rothko’s red paint splatter still could be seen, carefully protected by Goldberg, on the wooden floorboards. His love for and knowledge of art and his generosity with sharing that with others were as grand and as impressive as the space in which he worked.