Albert York

(American, 1928–2009)

Albert York was an American painter known for his modestly sized depictions of idyllic landscapes and floral still lifes. The artist Fairfield Porter once said of his work, “York's paintings do not look like the next fashion but, rather, old-fashioned. Instead of mural-sized and bland, they are small and intense.” Born in 1928 in Detroit, MI, he grew up with his aunt and uncle in Belleville, Canada, before attending the Ontario College of Art as a young man. After serving in the Korean War, York moved to New York, where he studied painting under Raphael Soyer and worked at a frame shop owned by the artist Robert Kulicke. It was Kulicke that introduced York’s work to the gallerist Roy Davis in 1962. Over the following decades, he traveled little, mostly painting around his home in Long Island, avoiding the bustling art scene of the city. Known for his reticence in speaking about his work, when asked why he painted, York reflected, “I think we live in a paradise, this is a Garden of Eden, really it is. It might be the only paradise we ever know, and it's just so beautiful, with the trees and everything here, and you feel you want to paint it. Put it into a design.” The artist died on October 27, 2009 in Southampton, NY. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.