John Button
1929–1982

Introduction

John Button (1929–12 December 1982) was an American artist, well known for his city-scapes. Educated at the University of California, Berkeley then moved to New York City in the early 1950s. He became friends with Fairfield Porter and Frank O'Hara and assumed his part in the New York School of Painters and Poets.

Amidst the frenzy of Abstract Expressionism, Button remained true to his interest in realism, and is now most commonly associated with such New York School artists as Fairfield Porter, Jane Freilicher, and Alex Katz. Button was a fine draftsman and drew from life models throughout his career. However, little known are his sketches of male nudes – studio models from the School of Visual Arts, where Button taught, as well as personal acquaintances.

At one point Button was in a relationship with the poet James Schuyler. Button died of a heart attack in New York City on 12 December 1982.

Wikidata identifier

Q6224166

View the full Wikipedia entry

Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed December 12, 2024.

Introduction

American painter known for his cityscapes.

Roles

Artist, painter

ULAN identifier

500021010

Names

John Button

View the full Getty record

Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed December 12, 2024.


On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.