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A Head in the Clouds

JL;DR SUMMARY Jacqueline Gourevitch, celebrated for her cloud paintings, is a vibrant link to the New York School of the mid-20th century, painting in the tradition of purity and abstraction reminiscent of her early teacher, Robert Motherwell. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Avant GardeAmerican Art HistoryNew York School20th Century ArtJacqueline GourevitchCloud PaintingAbstractionBlack Mountain CollegeRobert MotherwellArt Collections

Places mentioned

Tribeca, New York, United States
"Jacqueline Gourevitch greets me warmly at the door of her studio in Tribeca."
Paris, France
"When Gourevitch was born, in Paris in 1933, her family was already on the run from Hitler."
Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
"Left behind with her mother, an enormously strong woman, Gourevitch spent her earliest childhood attempting to escape, first from Paris to Marseille, and from Marseille to Spain."
Spain
"They made their way from Marseille to the Pyrenees, smuggled over the Spanish border by a helpful journalist they met along the way."
New York City, New York, United States
"Once in New York, Gourevitch lost most of her memories of Europe and started a new life in Americas most vibrant city."
North Carolina, United States
"Closer to a commune or a collective than to a traditional college, nestled in the hills of western North Carolina, it was a crucial incubator of New Yorks avant-garde, producing a list of cultural luminaries that is still mind-boggling."

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Retrieved 2025-07-30 05:31:20 UTC
Curated 2025-07-30 08:33:28 UTC