Esther Geller
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Esther Geller | |
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| Born | October 26, 1921 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | October 22, 2015 (aged 93) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
| Known for | Encaustic painting |
| Movement | Abstract Expressionism |
| Spouse | Harold Shapero |
Esther Geller (October 26, 1921 – October 22, 2015) was an American painter mainly associated with the abstract expressionist movement in Boston in the 1940s and 1950s. She was one of the foremost authorities on encaustic painting techniques.[1][2]
Geller studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1921, and later taught there with Karl Zerbe from 1943 to 1944.[3] It was at the Museum School that she began painting with encaustic, a mixture of pigment and hot wax. She first received acclaim as a painter of "organic abstractions" in the 1940s when she exhibited with a group of other emerging artists later known as the Boston Expressionists.[4] Her work was more abstract than that of Zerbe and other Boston figurative expressionists.[5][6]
After marrying the composer Harold Shapero in 1945,[7][8] Geller continued painting and exhibiting, and taught art classes at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts. She was active as a painter for over seventy years.[9]
In 2012 her encaustics were shown in a major exhibit, The Future of the Past: Encaustic Art in the 21st Century, at the Mills Gallery in Boston.[10] The exhibit also included a video demonstration by Karl Zerbe and an interview with Geller.[11] Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Addison Gallery of American Art,[12] the Danforth Museum,[1] and the DeCordova Museum.[13]
On October 22, 2015, Geller died at the age of 93.[2]