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john day estate
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PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Adelphi University, Garden City, New York
The American Broadcasting Company, New York, New York
American Council of Learned Societies, New York, New York
The Anderson Company, Chicago, Illinois
The Avis Corporation, New York, New York
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, New York
Chase Manhattan Bank, Paris, France
The Deutsche Bank, New York, New York
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey
Musee Cantini, Marseilles, France
Musee Pompidou, Centre National de l?Art Contemporain, Paris, France
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Nabisco Inc. East Hanover, New Jersey
The National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.
The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New Jersey
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
The United Bank of Illinois, Rockford, Illinois
Carlson Gallery, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, ConnecticutBIOGRAPHY
John Day was born in Malden, Massachusetts on May 27, 1932; his father was a physician who became an anesthesiologist and his mother was a classical pianist/teacher.
After graduating from Malden High School (1949), where he had already exhibited his talent
for and commitment to painting, he spent a year (1949-1950) at Syracuse University‘s School
of Art, before transferring to Yale University’s School of Art & Architecture.
During his years there (1950-1957) he studied with Josef Albers, Burgoyne Cillier, and James Brooks.
Still seeking his own “voice,” his early work in the 50’s was a mix of styles and subjects—
everything from landscapes to collages. In the early 60’s he worked on a series of collages
known as the Billboard series.
Meanwhile, he was spending several summers in France and through his friendship there with a young Greek artist, Theo Stavropoulos, Day developed an interest in Greek mythology.
This would come to the fore with his Erebos series during 1961-62, a phase that began with
his find of a scrapbook with photographs of Victorian and Edwardian actors and singers; he
proceeded to make what are technically collages, although many of the works require close
examination to see the photographs under his painting; also, although seemingly a dramatic
break from the color field mode he had studied with Albers, many of the Erebos works
incorporate almost pure color field elements.
John Day, an artist, died yesterday in the He was a professor of art at William Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was 49 years old.
Mr Day's paintings have been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum and Paterson College in New Jersey. Mr Day was born in Boston and is survived by his mother, Josephine Day of Waterford, Conn., and his brother, Michael Day of the Whitney Museum POSTHUMOUS EXHIBITIONS celebrating John Day’s mesmerizing art were staged at the West Hampton Guild Hall in 1983, the Montclair Art Museum and New London’s Lyman Allyn Museum in 1984, and the Elaine Benson Gallery in Bridgehampton, Long Island, in 1985. JOHN DAY’S ESTATE – a treasure-trove of 92 paintings, 30 reliefs, 14 collages and over 500 drawings – was acquired that year by his friend Guy Cooper (1937-2014) and left in storage in Secaucus, New Jersey. Cooper moved to London with his partner Gordon Taylor and the collection was forgotten about for a quarter of a century, before being shipped to London in 2011. In February 2020 it was acquired by art consultant Iain Brunt.