Avital Sagalyn (1925-2020) was an artist whose works in oil paint, ink, watercolor, and gouache, among other media, speak in a singular voice. She had at times employed elements of abstraction, cubism, and abstract expressionism, but the dexterity and emotional impact of her work across many styles often set her apart.
Avital has been called an "undiscovered" great talent among 20th century painters. Despite gaining early notoriety, for decades she chose to keep her artworks private. Recently that changed. The University Museum of Contemporary Art in Amherst opened a solo retrospective of Avital’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures in October 2019. When asked by the Boston Globe why she hadn’t exhibited earlier, she replied, “I wasn’t ready yet.”
Avital's family fled the Nazi invasion of Belgium in 1940. Their journey took them through France, Spain, and Portugal. The next year, Avital and her family immigrated to the U.S. and settled in New York City.
After studying at the Museum of Modern Art in high school, Avital earned a fine arts degree at the Cooper Union. In 1949, she was among the first women awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study painting in Paris. There and in New York, Avital’s circle of friends included Picasso, Brancusi, and de Kooning, among many other modern-art icons.
Upon returning from Paris, Avital taught art classes at MOMA. In the summer of 1952, Avital was in residence at MacDowell, painting a lively series of still lifes. Among her other works done there were drawings of plants, some using music-notation paper given to her by Jacob Avshalomov, a composer and conductor in residence at the time.
In 1955, Avital married Robert Sagalyn, then an off-Broadway theater producer and actor. In 1967, they moved their young family to Amherst, MA, where the artist continued to paint. She also served on advisory committees to what later became the University Museum of Contemporary Art.
