The Secret Life of Artist Jack Wolfe

Jack Wolfe (1924-2007) was a promising painter in the 1950s who gained national recognition for his portraiture, abstract works, and political subjects. He’d studied at Rhode Island School of Design and graduated from Boston Museum Fine Arts School in 1949. We featured his work, “Number, Numbest One,” a large abstract expressionist painting in “Medford with Love”. (Left: Yellow, Black Wittgenstein, acrylic, 96″ x 72″, 1977; right: Wittgenstein, Red Corner, acrylic, 72″ x 72″, 1976)

At the height of his fame, Wolfe turned his back on the commercial aspects, gave up the art scene (which he found to be manipulative and excesively monetarily driven) but continued to paint throughout his life at his Stoughton studio, where he created a considerable body of work in private. In spite of this, Wolfe’s works are held in private and museum collections including The Whitney, Boston’s Museum Fine Arts, and the DeCordova Museum. (Above, QUBE4B acrylic, 84″ x 72″, 1995.)

Clockwise from top left, Laurie – Blue acrylic, 66″ x 48″, 1982; A Hand in the Game of Life (The Queen of Hearts); The Grandmother – The Last Day, detail 2, acrylic, triptych, 84″ x 160″, 1985; Laurie, Red Scarf acrylic and oil, diptych, 27″ x 35″ overall, 1974.

Red X, an example of Wolfe’s abstract work.

“Chorus.”

Information about paintings for sale is available upon request at his studio. You can also visit his studio, maintained just as it was when he was alive, to see more of his large-scale work. By appointment in in Stoughton, MA wolfestudio@gmail.com. (Above: a photograph of the artist.)