Myril Adler, was born on September 22, 1920 in Vitebsk, Russia (now Belarus), and immigrated with her parents to the United States at age 3. An artist from birth, Myril also known as Milly (who was officially and mistakenly given the name Mildred at Ellis Island, a name she always hated), fought not to graduate from high school in Brooklyn before age 15, so that she could stay for one more year as a budding artist and continue to win art awards and recognitions. She went on to further her art studies at the Art Students League and the 92nd Street Y in New York, where she developed her own style, which evolved through many media platforms in her 80+ year career as an artist.
MYRIL ADLER
Born 1920, Vitebsk, Russia
Lived and worked in Briarcliff Manor, NY, 1956-2015
EDUCATION
Art Students League, New York, NY, studied with Robert Brackman, portrait painter whose commissions included the Du Ponts and Lindberghs
Brooklyn Museum Art School, Brooklyn, NY
Theater Arts Workshop at 92nd Street Y, New York, NY, studied with Moi Solotaroff, set designer for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes and the Artef Yiddish Theater
Pratt Graphics Center, New York, NY, studied with Michael Ponce de Leon and Seong Moy
TEACHING
Director, Myril Adler Arts Workshop, Briarcliff Manor, NY, 1956-2005. Her students include photographer Steve J. Sherman, printmaker Anne Krinsky, illustrator Paul Meisel, glass artist Carina Cheung, ceramic artist Arnie Zimmerman, painter Mateo Neivert, interior designer Sarah Lounsbury, and numerous other professional artists and art teachers.
Artist-In-Residence, Pratt Graphics Center, New York, NY
Directed art programs for emotionally disturbed children, Hawthorne Cedar Knolls, NY
"Mystique of Printmaking" workshops for teachers including lectures and printmaking demonstrations, Katonah Gallery, Katonah, NY and other venues
Teacher, children's classes in painting & puppetry, Boulder, Colorado
Teacher, art classes for 8 & 9 year olds, Hunt's Point Y, Bronx, NY
AFFILIATIONS
Westbroadway Gallery, SOHO, New York, NY
Katonah Gallery, Katonah, NY
Abraxas Artists (Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery)
National Association of Women Artists
Hudson River Contemporary Artists (Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 Ossining Arts Council Gallery, Steamer Firehouse, Ossining, NY: REVERBERATIONS 2 - Memorial 80 year retrospective exhibition (see Videos)
2000 AVA Fine Arts, White Plains, NY - FACES OF NEW YORK: Monotype portraits of homeless
1999 Articoli Fine Arts, White Plains, NY - etchings and monotypes
1996 Ossining Arts Council Gallery, Ossining, N.Y.
REVERBERATIONS - 60 year retrospective: Paintings, drawings,
sculpture, woodcuts, etchings, puppets, collage, mixed-media
computer generated images, photography.
1994 Katonah Gallery, Katonah, NY
30 year retrospective of printmaking
1993 Temple Israel of North Westchester, Croton-on-Hudson, NY
MYTHS and MYSTERIES - drawings and intaglio etchings
1991 Fine Arts Gallery, Westchester Community College (SUNY)
50 YEARS, 50 FACES - 50 year retrospective of portraits
1990 Ossining Public Library Gallery, Ossining, NY
FACES OF NEW YORK - Large monotype portraits
1986 Art Expo, New York, NY, Javits Convention Center (1st Art Expo)
1980 Katonah Gallery, Katonah, NY - PAPERWORKS
1976 Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
1976 Westbroadway Gallery, SOHO, New York, NY
Illuminated Embossments, paperworks - ANXIETY OF THE INFINITE
1976 Katonah Gallery, Katonah, NY - PAPERWORKS
1975 Briarcliff College Art Gallery, Briarcliff Manor, NY
1974 Westbroadway Gallery, SOHO, New York, NY - mixed media works
1973 Westbroadway Gallery, SOHO, New York, NY
Carved acrylic collage paintings and intaglio etchings
1972 Katonah Gallery, Katonah, NY
Illuminated embossments, intaglio etchings
1970, 1972 Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
1968 Book Gallery, White Plains, NY
1967 Chappaqua Public Library, Chappaqua, NY
1966 Briarcliff Public Library, Briarcliff Manor, NY
Woodcuts and intaglio etchings.
1964 Royal Athena II Gallery, New York, NY
1962 Ann Ross Gallery, White Plains, NY
1960 Scarborough School Gallery, Scarborough, NY
10 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE (1950 - 1960)
1952 Casa Municipale, Merano Italy
Large exhibition of oils, pastels, watercolors and drawings
done while residing in the Italian Tyrol from 1950 to 1952
1950 Gallerie Bernheim Jeune, Paris, France
Exhibit of oils, watercolors, pastels and drawings done
while residing in Paris and Clamart from 1948 to 1950
While working in Paris, Myril’s works were included annually
in the Salon d'Automn, Salon de Mai, and Salon des
Femmes Peintres; were reviewed and praised in the
Journal D'art and other journals.
1944 Museum Gallery, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
Married Oct. 1941 to Jack Adler. In 1943, Jack joined the U.S.
Naval Intelligence Japanese Language School. Joining
Jack in Boulder, Myril produced a large body of oils
and gouaches, including portraits, social commentary,
"psychology of crowds," of which 60 works were exhibited.
Concerned at the isolation of the Nisei children
who had been relocated with their parents, who were
the Japanese language teachers in this program, Myril
started a painting and pupperty
group including the Nisei children with Boulder children.
Mrs. Thomas Folawn, who had come to Boulder in a
covered wagon in 1888, offered a lovely brick studio,
where Myril conducted classes for the children and wives
of the Naval Intelligence Japanese Language School students.
Myril became involved in Orchesis Modern Dance Group,
designing staging and lighting for the annual recital
in 1944: "The Four Freedoms," assisting Marjorie Wentworth,
a Martha Graham dancer who was head of the U. of Colorado dance program.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
The Roundtower, Copenhagen, Denmark
U.S. Information Service travelling exhibits throughout
Europe and North Africa, shown at U.S. Embassies
Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, Caracas, Venezuela (Purchase Award)
Lever House, New York, NY (Pratt Graphics Center Talent)
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY: recipient
of awards for graphics, including purchase award for
Hudson River Museum permanent collection
New York State Council of the Arts travelling exhibits
(libraries and colleges, New York State.)
National Association of Women Artists Annuals since 1961,
including travelling print shows, Europe, USA.
Audubon Society Annual Exhibitions, National Academy, New York, NY
Westchester Art Society Annual Exhibitions, White Plains, NY
Albany Print Club Juried Annual, Albany, NY
Pratt Graphics Center exhibit at Pan Am Bldg., New York, NY: Salute to 1965
A.A.A. Gallery, New York, NY juried annual exhibition
University of California (Berkeley) Purchase Award
Abraxas exhibits, N.Y.C., White Plains Library, Westchester
Community College, Sarah Lawrence College, Westchester County Center
University of Rhode Island (print aquisition)
and many other libraries, collections, colleges and galleries
throughout USA and Europe
1998 Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Puck Bldg., New York, NY
1987 The Rubelle & Norma Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
HIGH TECH/HIGH TOUCH: COMPUTER GRAPHICS IN PRINTMAKING
curated by: Mel Alexenberg, Chairman, Fine Arts
Isaac Kerlow, Director Computer Graphics
Elenor Moretta, Director of Exhibitions, Pratt Institute
In release to press Myril Adler's work was cited:
"By integrating computer imagery with printmaking processes
such as etching, silkscreen and lithography, the artists in this exhibition have
endowed their work with the high-touch qualities we crave ---refinement of
line and shape, subtlety of color and tone, and above all, the heritage of felt
meanings and associations that such traditional media possess."
" In Myril Adler's ‘Interiors’, for example, the two faces which confront us,
roughed out in bold strokes and textures, recall and convey all the intensity of
German Expressionist woodcuts. On closer inspection, these strokes turn out
to be computer generated lines typically jagged, and the textures are overlays
of program dot patterns. These computer effects make the anxiety expressed
in those faces ring true in a unique and particularly contemporary way."
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY: WORK REPRODUCED & REVIEWED: ARTICLES, ARTISTS BOOKS ETC.
1990
The Complete Printmaker: Traditions, Techniques, Innovations, by
Claire Romano & John Ross, The Free Press; Macmillan, Inc.
1977
The Reinhold Book of Art Ideas; Van Nostrand Reinhold by Norman Laliberte and Alex Mogelon
1972
Collage, Montage, Assemblage; Van Nostrand Reinhold
by Norman LaLiberte and Alex Mogelon: Chapter 4 (Demonstrations)
pp. 50-59 with illustrations, pp 47 actual size miniature print.
COLLECTIONS
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Museum of Modern Art, Caracas, Venezuela
University of California, Berkeley
University of Rhode Island
The New Jewish Home, Sarah Neuman Small House Communities, Mamaroneck, NY