Balcomb Greene

Balcomb Greene
b. 1904, Millville, New York
d. 1990, Montauk Point, New York

Balcomb Greene was a pioneering figure in American modernism, known for his evolving artistic vision. Born John Wesley Greene on May 22 in Millville, New York, he was the son of a Methodist clergyman and named after the founder of the United Methodist Church. By the time he graduated from Syracuse University in 1926 with a degree in philosophy and psychology, Greene had rejected his birth name and adopted “Balcomb,” his grandmother’s surname, as a symbolic break from his religious upbringing.

During his final year at Syracuse, Greene met the aspiring sculptor and painter Gertrude Glass during a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The couple married in 1926 and soon moved to Europe, spending time in Paris and Vienna, where Greene briefly studied psychology and Gertrude pursued her art. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1927, Greene entered graduate studies in English literature at Columbia University, taught English at Dartmouth College, and wrote fiction, hoping to establish himself as a novelist.

During a second stay in Paris beginning in 1931, Greene immersed himself in the avant-garde circles of Montparnasse. Greene studied informally at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and became captivated by the work of Piet Mondrian and the Abstraction-Création group. This environment catalyzed his shift to visual art, leading him to pursue painting with growing seriousness.

Returning to New York in 1932 during the Great Depression, Greene joined the Works Progress Administration (WPA), creating murals for public projects such as the Williamsburg Housing Project and the 1939 World’s Fair. He became a vocal advocate for American abstract art, publishing essays in Art Front and serving as the first president of the Artists’ Union in 1935. In 1936, he co-founded the American Abstract Artists and served as its first chairman. Greene championed non-objective art as a means to foster deeper public engagement with abstraction.

Remaining active in academia, Greene accepted a faculty position at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he taught art history until 1959. Among his students was a young Andy Warhol. In 1946, he spent the summer teaching at Black Mountain College. In 1947, the Greene’s purchased property at Montauk Point, Long Island—a landscape that would deeply influence his later seascapes and atmospheric compositions.

The 1950s marked a period of critical and commercial success. Greene exhibited frequently, including at J.B. Neumann’s New Art Circle and the Bertha Schaefer Gallery. His evolving style reflected his growing interest in humanist themes. His writings during this time continued to champion abstraction as a psychological and philosophical language, distinct from literal representation.

Following Gertrude’s death from cancer in 1956, Greene found solace in his work. In 1961, he remarried Terry Trimpten and settled permanently in Montauk. That same year, he was honored with a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1976, Greene received the Altman First Prize in Figure Painting, underscoring his continued relevance and innovation in the art world.

Until his death in 1990, Greene remained a vital voice in American art as a painter, teacher, and writer. His legacy is preserved in major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.