Jack Youngerman (b. 1926, Webster Groves, Missouri) studied at the Universities of North Carolina and Missouri. From 1947–48 he studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he continued to live and paint until 1956. Youngerman created bold positive and negative forms using brilliant color combinations, inspired by the cutouts of Henri Matisse and the purity and discipline of Piet Mondrian paintings. He is known for his explosive imagery, meshing hard-edged geometry with organic matter such as plants and leaves. Fascinated by abstract forms, he said, “ “The whole primary thing I work with in my paintings is an exploration and articulation of all the possibilities of abstract shape.”
Youngerman’s works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.