Talk:Misha Reznikoff

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Contents 1 Who is Misha Reznikoff? 2 Huh? 3 Unsourced biography 4 Biography

[edit] Who is Misha Reznikoff?

I've been trying to add references to this article and I can find very little about Reznikoff. What references there are primarily relate to his wife's photographic work in Brazil. There are sufficient references for this article to pass WP:notability guidelines I think - but not enough to substantiate much of the biographical material in the article. This seems to be original research or perhaps family knowledge. I don't want to delete the extra stuff Nick Connolly 20:07, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
I've split the article into two parts. The stubby bit at the start is referenced and verified. The bio bit isn't but appears plausible.Nick Connolly 20:38, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Huh?

Misha Reznikoff was an American-Ukranian artist who was born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1905 and died in New York in 1971^[1].

So what??? That's the opening sentence. It makes no attempt to say what this person is noted for!

He was married to photographer Genevieve Naylor.

Again, so what? That's the second sentence. It still makes no attempt to say what he's noted for.

From 1940 to 1943, he and Genevieve were sent to Brazil as part of the cultural wing of the Office of inter-American Affairs ^[2], a program set by the Roosevelt Administration to promote American goodwill throughout Latin America.

That's the third sentence.

Why is this guy worth an article? It still hasn't said after those first three sentences. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael Hardy (talk • contribs) 21:33, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Probably isn't. I can find references to only two paintings of any note and one review.Nick Connolly 03:27, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unsourced biography

I deleted all this stuff. In the event of somebody finding any references its here:

[edit] Biography

His family immigrated to the United States in 1921 and settled in Providence, Rhode Island. At 22, he enrolled in a three year MFA program at the Rhode Island School of Design. During this period, Reznikoff met, befriended, and formed a symbiotic relationship with fellow Russian, Arshile Gorky. The close relationship that was to last until Gorky’s death in 1948.

By 1928, Reznikoff and Gorky felt the time was right to head for New York. Once there, Reznikoff had the good fortune to meet Stuart Davis who became his mentor, introducing Reznikoff to the painters’ of Davis’s generation and securing a job for Reznikoff at the Arts’ Student’s League.

In 1933, while teaching at Miss Hall’s school in Massachusetts, he met his future wife, the photographer, Genevieve Naylor.

By the mid thirties he became part of the WPA, where he worked, drank, and caroused with Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Ad Rhinehart, Milton Avery, Milton Resnick, and Diego Rivera. One of Reznikoff’s paintings, The End of The Horse, is acquired the Museum of Modern Art and is part of their permanent collection.

Reznikoff was also an active member of the cultural landscape of the 1930’s. He took an early interest in jazz and became part of a group of painters that frequented such famous clubs as Café Society, The Cotton Club, Nick’s, The Village Vanguard, Romia Marie and more. He became friends with the prominate musicians of that time: Eddie Condon, Zutty Singleton, Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum, Maxine Sullivan, Lee Wiley, Benny Goodman, and many, many others. He followed the trend in jazz to the post bop era and became very good friends with Stan Getz, Max Roach, Kai Winding, Lennie Tristano, and numerous musicians from that era. During his visit to Brazil he taught art in both Rio and São Paulo, and was given a major exhibition at the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes.

Upon his returned to New York, he began to teach at the New School for Social Research and was one of the first painters to experiment in what was eventually named the Abstract Expressionist movement. He was even part of early television, as a frequent visual interpreter via a sketch pad of music on the Eddie Condon Floor Show.

Throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s, he continued to teach and exhibit his work. The galleries included Sydney Janis, Betty Parsons, Leo Castelli, Knoedler and Feiner.

By the early 1960’s he moved to Dobbs Ferry, New York, where he continued to paint until his death in 1971