Jack Tworkov

Painter, born in Biala, Poland. His family emigrated to the USA in 1913, and he attended Columbia University (1923). He met and became influenced by the painter Willem de Kooning, later joining him and other artists who together evolved abstract expressionism. Tworkov became a leading exponent of the movement which greatly influenced American art during the 1950s and 1960s. He was chairman of the department of art at Yale University (1963–9).

Jack Tworkov (1900 – 1982) was a Polish born American abstract expressionist painter.

He was born in Biala, Poland and immigrated to the United States when he was thirteen. During the Depression Era, Tworkov met Willem de Kooning, and together (along with a group of other abstract expressionists) founded the New York School. During his lifetime, Tworkov had taught at several institutions, including the American University, Black Mountain College, Queens College, Pratt Institute, University of Minnesota, and Yale where he became Chairman of the Art Department from 1963 - 1969.

Tworkov is considered one of the “action painters” of the Abstract expressionists of the 1940's and 1950's (such as Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning).