{{Short description|American artist, painter (1911–1987)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Leon Berkowitz | image = Leon Berkowitz with sculpture.jpg | caption = Berkowitz in {{circa|1950}} | birth_date = {{birth date|1911|9|14}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1987|8|17|1911|9|14}} | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | education = University of Pennsylvania,<br> Art Students League of New York,<br> Corcoran College of Art and Design,<br> Académie de la Grande Chaumière | movement = Washington Color School | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Ida Fox|1935|1979|reason=died}}, * Maureen Berkowitz }} }} '''Leon Berkowitz''' (14 September 1911 – 17 August 1987) was an American artist and educator. He is best known for his color field paintings and the series, ''The Unities''. He co-founded the Washington Workshop Center, a gallery and school.

Berkowitz was a leading member of the art movement, the Washington Color School.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Fensom|first=Sarah E.|date=2020-02-25|title=Latter-Day Luminist|url=https://www.artandantiquesmag.com/leon-berkowitz/|access-date=2021-08-30|website=Art & Antiques Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref> Berkowitz did not like the label of, "Washington Color School" and often rejected it for his own work.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|last=Capps|first=Kriston|date=2017-06-02|title=Color, Full: A Timeline of the Washington Color School|url=http://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/326006/color-full-a-timeline-of-the-washington-color-school/|access-date=2021-08-31|website=Washington City Paper|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Biography == [[File:Window No. 4, 1986, Leon Berkowitz.jpg|thumb|left|''Window No. 4'' (1986) at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC in 2022]] Leon Berkowitz was born on 14 September 1911 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to parents Yettie (née Pries) and Bernard Berkowitz.<ref>{{Cite web|date=September 14, 1911|title=Leon Berkowitz in the Pennsylvania, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1906-1913, Certificate Number: 148328|url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60484/|website=Ancestry.com|publisher=Pennsylvania Department of Health}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=McGraw|first=Kate|date=2013-12-13|title=Subtle and misty transitions: Leon Berkowitz's 'Unity' paintings open at David Richard Gallery|url=https://www.abqjournal.com/319069/and-3.html|access-date=2021-08-30|website=Albuquerque Journal|language=en-US}}</ref> His parents were Hasidic, from Hungary.<ref name=":1" /> His date of birth sometimes has a different listed date (including 1915, 1919), and his place of birth has also been listed as nearby Trenton Township.<ref name=":0" /> Between 1935 and 1937, he married poet {{III|Ida Fox Berkowitz|lt=Ida Fox|qid=Q108331907}}.<ref name=":1" />

He attended the University of Pennsylvania,<ref name=":0" /> the Art Students League of New York (1941),<ref name=":1" /> the Corcoran College of Art and Design, and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. During World War II between 1943 and 1945, Berkowitz served in the United States Army and was stationed in Virginia.<ref name=":0" />

After his service he moved to Washington D.C. and co-founded the Washington Workshop Center (also known as the Workshop Art Center or Washington Workshop Center for the Arts) alongside his wife Ida Fox Berkowitz and artist {{III|Helmut Kern|qid=Q99508269}}.<ref name=":1" /> The workshop offered classes, workspace, and a gallery. The center became a key gathering place for the Washington Color School artists, including Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Howard Mehring, Thomas Downing, and Gene Davis.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Godfrey|first=Mark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fJu2-D2nhRwC|title=Abstraction and the Holocaust|date=2007-01-01|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-12676-1|pages=29–33|language=en}}</ref> One of Berkowitz' students at the workshop was Scott Burton.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Scott Burton Papers in The Museum of Modern Art Archives|url=https://www.moma.org/research-and-learning/archives/finding-aids/Burtonb.html|access-date=2021-09-01|website=Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)}}</ref>

His paintings were abstract, and softly radiated colors and tones that one might found in nature.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|last=Glueck|first=Grace|date=2002-03-29|title=Art in Review; 'Colors on the Edge' -- 'Hard and Soft: The Paintings of Richard Anuszkiewicz and Leon Berkowitz'|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/arts/art-review-colors-edge-hard-soft-paintings-richard-anuszkiewicz-leon-berkowitz.html|access-date=2021-09-01|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

== Death and legacy == Berkowitz died on 17 August 1987. His work can be found in public collections, including at Smithsonian American Art Museum,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Leon Berkowitz|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/leon-berkowitz-370|access-date=2021-09-01|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum|language=en-US}}</ref> Des Moines Art Center,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Leon Berkowitz|url=https://emuseum.desmoinesartcenter.org/people/41655/leon-berkowitz;jsessionid=5DF124430B94E02F2B78E2AB67D25D83|access-date=2021-09-01|website=Des Moines Art Center|language=en}}</ref> National Gallery of Art,<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Coronation|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.177135.html|access-date=2021-09-01|website=National Gallery of Art (NGA)|year=1979 }}</ref> Corcoran Gallery of Art,<ref name=":3" /> John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the Phillips Collection,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Leon Berkowitz|url=https://www.phillipscollection.org/leon-berkowitz|access-date=2021-09-01|website=The Phillips Collection|language=en}}</ref> Museum of Modern Art, the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the High Museum of Art, and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Leon Berkowitz|url=http://64.136.229.66:8081/objects/2100/cathedral-no-9-1968?ctx=6cd252d206f83b2c0dccfd9636fd508ca69feef7&idx=0|access-date=2021-10-27|website=Kalamazoo Institute of Arts|language=en-US}}</ref>

Berkowitz' work was featured in the postmortem exhibition, ''Hard and Soft'' (2002) at ACA Galleries in New York City.<ref name=":2" /> His work was in the exhibit, ''Painting the Picture'' (2018–2019), at Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Leon Berkowitz|url=https://mocajacksonville.unf.edu/artists/Leon-Berkowitz/|access-date=2021-09-01|website=Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville}}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/leon-berkowitz-and-ida-fox-berkowitz-papers-9551 Leon Berkowitz and Ida Fox Berkowitz papers, circa 1900-1986], Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkowitz, Leon}} Category:1987 deaths Category:1911 births Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Category:Jewish American artists Category:American abstract painters Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:Art Students League of New York alumni Category:Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:20th-century American Jews