About The Artist
Born in New Rochelle, New York in 1931, Michael Fitzhugh Wright studied art at the Yale Music and Art School, Albright Art School, and the Brooklyn Museum School. After serving in Korea as a regimental artist, he began his career as a painter in New York City in 1954. As a young painter, he was a fr...
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Susan Eley Fine Art was founded in 2006 by Susan Eisner Eley, who continues her tenure as owner and director of the space. Currently, SEFA operates two galleries—on the Lower East Side in NYC and in Hudson in Upstate New York. 
More Details
Creation Date: 2018
Materials: Oil on board
Dimensions: 20" x 16" x 1"
About the Item: Michael Wright lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Initially drawn to the area by its natural beauty and family ties, Wright moved his studio to Santa Fe in 1986. The paintings in this exhibition are largely from the Diablo Canyon series which depicts a rocky gorge just outside of the city. On the Canyon, Wright states, “There is a variety of forms there and you can always find something different…there would be cliffs there and a very dramatic landscape… I would go into the canyons and pick something, anything I saw to start with…and if I'm in the right mental state where I'm not thinking about anything, really and just working through instinct that's when I usually turn out good things.” After a studio visit with the vibrant 92 year old artist, Susan Eley writes of the Diablo Canyon works: “He paints the landscape with thick, impasto brushstrokes in warm red, orange, terracotta, and green…The imagery is abstracted, yet as entirely identifiable as specific locations in this unique part of the American Southwest…Wright has painted for many decades and has been influenced by a myriad of mid-century abstractionists. It would be difficult to assert that his practice was not influenced by some aspects of every major art movement of the latter half of the 20th century…These works capture Wright’s particular story to tell about a few of the places where he has lived and loved.”
About The Artist
Born in New Rochelle, New York in 1931, Michael Fitzhugh Wright studied art at the Yale Music and Art School, Albright Art School, and the Brooklyn Museum School. After serving in Korea as a regimental artist, he began his career as a painter in New York City in 1954. As a young painter, he was a friend and colleague of Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and David Smith in the famous days of the Cedar Bar and Eighth Street Art Club. He studied with Paul Brach through the New School and showed in several Tenth Street galleries with Howard Kanovitz, Aristodimos Kaldis, Earl Kerkam and Philip Pavia. After ten years in New York City, he moved to East Hampton and assisted Willem de Kooning from 1964 through 1967. While in East Hampton, Wright had several solo shows at the Guild Hall and in 1966 won the prestigious Long Island Painter's Award. Although he remained life-long friends with de Kooning, he wanted to further explore his own personal vision and did not want to be identified as a regional Long Island painter. In 1972, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Feeling the need to be closer to nature, Wright moved his studio in 1976 to the isolation of the woods in Barnstead, New Hampshire. For the next ten years he continued to expand his expression through the personal use of the line,the stroke, and the paint itself, creating well-defined groupings of forms, always influenced by nature. His mediums are most often oil, acrylic, watercolor, and colored paper. He continues in printmaking. His exceptional vision of nature, through lyrical imagery, is always there. In 1998 Michael suffered from a stroke which left him legally blind in his left eye; amazingly it has not interfered with his ability to produce high quality work. Wright now paints in his new studio on Agua Fria St., Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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