Herman Trunk

American painter Herman Trunk was a pioneer of figurative abstract painting, for which he earned much acclaim, but also some criticism. He was mainly known for still lifes, landscapes, figures, and florals. Trunk was active among a large group of New York modernists experimenting in abstraction between the Wars. Like many artists from this group, Trunk was a recognized and visible artist in New York during the 1920s and 1930s, but his legacy as a contributor to the development of American modernism has been lost in more permanent reconstructions of the history of American art.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Trunk’s work was consistently on display at galleries throughout New York, positively reviewed by well-known art critics, and included in high profile exhibitions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Venice Biennials. During the 1960s he was considered one of the pioneers of Pop Art.