{"data":{"id":"978","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":978,"topgoose_id":1205,"tms_id":978,"display_name":"Alfonso Ossorio","sort_name":"Ossorio Alfonso","display_date":"1916–1990","begin_date":"1916","end_date":"1990","biography":"\u003cp\u003eBorn of mixed Filipino, Spanish, and Chinese ancestry into a wealthy sugar- manufacturing family, Alfonso Ossorio moved to the United States as an adolescent in 1930 and completed his education in fine arts at Harvard University and, subsequently, the Rhode Island School of Design. During his studies, Ossorio created meticulously rendered drawings and watercolors that combined religious symbolism with Surrealist imagery. In the late 1940s he began to explore abstraction, guided by the close friendships he had formed with the Neo-Expressionist and Art Brut pioneer Jean Dubuffet and the Abstract Expressionist painters \u003ca href=\"/artists/1293\"\u003eClyfford Still\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/artists/1039\"\u003eJackson Pollock\u003c/a\u003e, with whom he showed work at the Betty Parsons Gallery in Manhattan.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe influence of these artists is clear in \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/3151\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNumber 14–1953\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, with its\naggressive calligraphic gestures and allover\ncomposition. Describing Ossorio’s work\nfrom this period, Dubuffet wrote: “These\npaintings no longer present elements\ntreated in a realistic way, but only\nsigns whose meaning has become almost\nincomprehensible. The figures, when\nthe artist wants any, take on forms\nso excessively conceptual, so shattered\nby crushing fragmentation, and so\ncompletely removed from any real shapes,\nthat it is impossible to guess their initial\nsignificance; they remain, anyway, available\nto our interpretation.” Ossorio created\nthe layered, interlocking areas of color\nand lines in these works by using a\nwax resist technique in conjunction with\nwatercolor and ink; however, this technique\ndid not satisfy him for long. He turned\naway from painting in the late 1950s\nand began to make assemblages of found\nobjects that he labeled “Congregations.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500026802","wikidata_id":"Q827547","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:12:26.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-11T07:01:11.964-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/978/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/978/exhibitions"}}}}