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JIM FORSBERG   1919-1991

Jim Forsberg was born on November 22, 1919 in the former home of Sinclair Lewis home in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Childhood friends remember Jim as an avid builder and draftsman. In high school Forsberg got involved with acting. In 1937 he was awarded a scholarship in drama at McPhail School of Music and Drama in Minneapolis. After one year, Forsberg decided to become an artist instead. He enrolled in the Minneapolis School of Art on a tuition scholarship and studied with Alexander Mosley, a Hans Hofmann student who was an important early influence in his awakening to the art of the time. Forsberg transferred to the St. Paul School of Art on a working scholarship. There he studied drawing with Cameron Booth.

In January 1942 Forsberg was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent the war years in the South Pacific, mainly New Guinea, the Philippines, and Australia. His first one-man show was in the lobby of the Red Cross in Brisbane in 1944, temperas he’d done from memories of his scouting missions in New Guinea, depicting soldiers mortally wounded in combat, bright shocking red against the dark green and umber of the jungle.

Forsberg entered the Art Student’s League in New York City on the G.I. Bill in 1946. Cameron Booth was teaching there at that time and he continued to be a mentor,

along with Vaclav Vytlacil. Forsberg studied printmaking with Will Barnet. During that year he married Joan Reimann, an artist enrolled at the League. They had two children, Carol and Stephen.

During this New York period from 1946 -1954, Forsberg had his first one-man New York show at the Ashby Gallery on Cornelia Street in the Village. He had begun to

work with stone like shapes both in his paintings and prints. Forsberg became a part of  “The Printmakers,” a group of young artists working in printmaking methods both old and new. He made many editions of his cardboard cut prints, which were shown nationally and internationally. When Jim and Joan traveled to England in 1950, Jim had close visual and physical contact with Stonehenge, for in those days one could walk among the stones and there is a photo of Jim leaning against one of the plinths, smiling broadly.

Jim took a bus with Lester Johnson to Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the end of Cape Cod in 1952. As soon as the bus turned onto 6-A he was smitten with the

light sparkling on the water, the curve of the harbor, and recognized the town as a good place to paint. In 1953 Jim moved with his family to Provincetown, at that time a quiet fishing village and art colony. He was to remain there and continue painting for the rest of his life.

In 1963 Forsberg began working in regional theater in Provincetown, acting, directing and designing sets. During his time with the theater they focused on the plays of Harold Pinter, Tennessee Williams, and local playwrights. Jim Forsberg: “It was an opportunity to work on a large scale three dimensionally with color-forms meaningfully connected to a group of events.”

Forsberg helped found the Fine Arts Work Center, which was launched in 1968. He served as chairman 1969-70 and was a member of the Visual Arts Committee of FAWC for seven years. Forsberg started holding painting seminars in his studio, which were ongoing until 1989. He also taught painting at Castle Hill Arts Center in Truro, MA for several summers.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

1948 Group show Paintings from Cold Water Flats, Jacques Seligmann Galleries, New York, NY   Group show, Printmakers, Jacques Seligmann Galleries, New York, NY. Studied with Hans Hofmann in Hofmann’s studio in New York.

1951 Forsberg had two solo shows, one of paintings and one of prints, at the New Gallery, Hotel Algonquin, New York, NY. Group show, Young Painters USA, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

1953 Forsberg’s prints exhibited in Young American Printmakers, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.

1954 Forsberg’s prints exhibited in Gravadores Norte Americanos, Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo. Moved from New York to Provincetown.

1950’s-1960’s Sun Gallery, HCE Gallery, Front Street Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1955  Prints exhibited at Ill Bienal Hispanacoamericana de Arte, Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo

1956 Recent Drawing USA, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1957 Exposition Biennale International de Gravura, Tokyo, Japan

1958 Solo exhibition, Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1962 Solo exhibition, Jacques Seligmann Gallery, New York, NY.

1970’s Solo and Group Exhibitions: Tirca Karlis Gallery, Provincetown, MA.

1984-1991 Forsberg exhibited at Provincetown Group Gallery, Provincetown, MA. Taught painting at Castle Hill Arts Center.

1986 Jim Forsberg: A selection of work 1940’s -1980’s Provincetown Art Association

This was a major retrospective filling the original Art Association building.

1989 Contemporary Provincetown, Provincetown Art Association & Museum,

Murray Feldman Gallery, Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, CA

1990 Solo Show, Stewart Levy Gallery, New York, NY

1991 Jim Forsberg died April 7, 1991 in Provincetown, MA. A Memorial Exhibition at Provincetown Art Association was organized in April by putting the word out to the community and people brought their Forsberg work in pick-up trucks and cars to hang on the wall.

1991 Memorial Retrospective, Provincetown Group Gallery, Provincetown, MA (August)

1994 Provincetown Prospects: The Work of Hans Hofmann and His Students, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA1995: Jim Forsberg: Color, Form and Interval, Cape Museum of Fine Arts, Dennis, Massachusetts.

1994 Solo Exhibition, Universal Fine Objects, Provincetown, MA

2002 Solo exhibition: Taking Flight, David Findley Jr Fine Arts, New York, NY

2003 Robert Beauchamp/ Jim Forsberg, Two Solo Shows, David Findlay Jr Fine Arts,

New York, New York

2004 Jim Forsberg: Looking Back, Selected Works 1946-1991,Beauregard Fine Art,

Rumson, NJ

2005 Group Exhibition, Acme Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2006 Jim Forsberg: The Early Years,Acme Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2007 Group Exhibition, Acme Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2010 Provincetown Painters(Group Exhibition) Acme Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2013- 2017 Solo Exhibitions, Julie Heller Fine Art, Provincetown, MA

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Cincinnati Museum, Cincinnati, OH

Los Angeles County Museum, CA

Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Museum of Modern Art, New York

National Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, MA

Smith College, Northampton, MA

Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY