Gandy Brodie (American, 1924-1975) studied dance and jazz before teaching himself to paint, inspired by the paintings of Van Gogh, Klee and Picasso. Brodie's style was considered second-generation abstract expressionism(emphasis on the "expressionism" in abstract expressionism). He was known for his dense and thickly layered paintings, and for depicting simple, stark, and sometimes isolated subjects, many of which recurred throughout his career. 

 

During his lifetime, Meyer Schapiro, Leo Steinberg, Robert Rosenblum, Elaine de Kooning, Thomas Hess and Dore Ashton championed Brodie. Indeed, in 1951, at the age of 27, the critic Meyer Schapiro selected him for a two-person New Talent Show at Kootz Gallery alongside Cy Twombly. Schapiro called him one of the most talented painters of his generation. However, in the years since his death, his work has faded from view, perhaps because he died so young. 

 

Brodie is part of the "second generation" of Abstract Expressionists. Of that group, which includes Norman Bluhm, Ed Clark, Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchell, he remains among the most isolated. This is largely because of the way he merged paint and subject matter. In contrast to the loaded brush and aggressiveness we associate with Bluhm and Mitchell, Brodie's work is slow to reveal itself. In his best works, Brodie was able to coax an image right up to edge of the abyss of sentimentality and not let it fall in.  Perhaps this is why Willem de Kooning and Hans Hoffmann included his work in their personal collections.

 

His paintings and drawings are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Neuberger Museum of Art, and the Phillips Collection.