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Leo Wrye Zimmerman (1924–2008) was an abstract artist who founded The Society for the Arts in Louisville and was a prolific Louisville artist for over 50 years. His unique style combined art, philosophy, and invention. Zimmerman was born in Timlin, Pennsylvania, but moved to and grew up in his mother's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky with the intent to study medicine and follow in the footsteps of his father, Dr. Leo Zimmerman. Shortly after his first school year, with World War II in full swing, he joined the army, worked as a medic, then in Special Services in Biarritz and Paris and determined that art was his path. After serving honorably, and studying art while awaiting a ship home, Zimmerman returned to Louisville and won first prize in the Ashland Oil Company art contest. Proceeds from the award were enough to allow Zimmerman and his new bride, Marie Kavanaugh Graves, to go to Paris. In Paris for five years, Zimmerman mixed with the top abstract artists of the 1950s including Robert Breer, Jean Dewasne, Auguste Herbin, Fernand Léger, Edgar Pillet, Jack Youngerman and Victor Vasarely. In 1955, back in the States, continuing to paint but missing the cultural milieu of Paris, Zimmerman then founded The Society for The Arts in Louisville.This private club was the first Louisville organization dedicated to promoting and integrating all the arts, with a philosophy that Zimmerman summarized below, “Art isn’t a commodity. It’s non-utilitarian, but it’s useful because it makes everybody grow … Art should be seen and known and talked about. I’m operating on that basis.” The Society was nonprofit, supported through membership dues and advertising income from its publications, beginning with the 32-pagemonthly “Arts in Louisville Magazine". The publication later was renamed “The Louisvillian,” and then replaced by the biweekly,“The Gazette of the Arts in Louisville". The club held live performances that included jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie and Cannonball Adderley, as well as poetry readings, theatre performances, and folksinging. Resisting pressure from local authorities, Arts in Louisville was the first integrated private club in the city. The first edition of the Arts in Louisville magazine was published in 1953. The magazine was a forum for artists to write freely about their lives and artistic concerns. Zimmerman published the magazine, designed the covers and set the type with his own typographic equipment. The Society for The Arts disbanded in 1963 from “staff cultural exhaustion,”Zimmerman wrote in an entry for “The Encyclopedia of Louisville." (1 ) The Louisville arts movement, still vibrant, became so renowned that Life magazine sent photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt to the city on assignment to photograph Zimmerman, fellow artist and teacher Joseph Fitzpatrick, who edited the magazine Zimmerman founded, and other colleagues. Five years in Paris working with pioneers in abstract art combined with the Arts in Louisville experience set Zimmerman's artistic direction. His artistic efforts evolved from “hard–edge” abstract paintings, large "rural murals", to rotating optical illusions called “Slu Balls”, and over 1000 computer-generated paintings. Zimmerman’s “Slu Balls” were exhibited at the University of Kentucky in 1989. Significant periods in Leo's artistic development can be summarized as follows: == Silicoil == Frustrated with the available products that damaged his brushes when he cleaned them, in 1954, Zimmerman invented a new brush cleaning system which he named “Silicoil”. Silicoil became so popular with artists that Zimmerman patented the system and formed the (Lion Company ), Incorporated to manufacture and distribute the product domestically and internationally. Today – after over 50 years in the market - Silicoil remains one of the leading brush cleaning systems. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Leo Wrye Zimmerman」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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