The Other Side of the Alley

John Coleman

Despite his lack of recognition in the art world, the work of John Ery Coleman is exemplary of American Abstract Expressionism, his early works especially drawing on the non-representational experimentation seen in the major workshops of San Francisco and elsewhere in the 1950s.

After his stint in the Second World War Coleman traveled to Mexico to study under Isidoro Ocampo in Mexico City, perhaps at the Taller de Grafica Popular. He then traveled to Paris to study intaglio printmaking with Johnny Friedlaender. Coleman's output at this time exhibited the delicate precision he learned in Friedlaender's studio in particular, achieving subtle tonality and texture on the plate, as seen in "The Other Side of the Alley".

It is likely that Coleman rubbed shoulders with members of the San Francisco School as he exhibited in various location throughout the Bay Area in the 1950s.