ADAA Fair

Schoelkopf Gallery is pleased to participate in the inaugural ADAA Fair with a presentation of works by Pat Passlof and Milton Resnick, two artists who were early pioneers of Abstract Expressionism.

The artists met in 1948 and married in 1962. They had separate, distinct artistic practices, but shared their life and worked alongside one another in New York for decades. Resnick was a founding member of The Club, the famed group of artists and cultural figures in downtown New York who gathered to discuss and exchange ideas about art, particularly Abstract Expressionism. Passlof, meanwhile, was one of the few women artists who were members of The Club.

Schoelkopf Gallery is dedicated to American art from the 19th century to the present day. The ADAA Fair presentation builds on the gallery's engagement with Abstract Expressionism as a defining movement in the history of American art. In 2025, Schoelkopf Gallery mounted Mary Abbott: To Draw Imagination, a retrospective of the Abstract Expressionist painter. Building on the success of that exhibition, the gallery presented New York City Circa 1960: Works from the Collection of Robert A. Ellison Jr. in the spring of 2026, which highlighted the significance of New York’s downtown art scene at midcentury, including the emergence of Abstract Expressionism. Pat Passlof and Milton Resnick were important figures in this scene and innovative pioneers in the field of American abstraction.

The works in the ADAA Fair presentation all come from the collection of Robert Ellison, who was a close friend and supporter of Pat Passlof and Milton Resnick.

Susan Reynolds, Executive Director of the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation notes: "Bob Ellison was an artist and collector and at the same time a great supporter of other artists and for many years a friend of Pat and Milton. He exhibited Milton's work at his gallery in Fort Worth in 1959. His own collection includes important works by both artists. Bob continued his dedication to Pat and Milton and their work through the formation and later opening of the Foundation. We are very pleased that his collection is getting this recognition."

The fair presentation coincides with the exhibitions Milton Resnick: Earth, Elephant, and New Bride, on view at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation in New York through July 17, 2027.

Pat Passlof (1928–2011) was born in Georgia and grew up in New York City. She studied at the storied Black Mountain College in North Carolina and received individual education with her mentor Willem de Kooning in New York. She also earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Her work is in many notable institutional collections around the world including the Whitney Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Crystal Bridges Museum, among others.

Having emerged from the downtown New York scene of Abstract Expressionism and shaped by her studies with Willem de Kooning and her participation in The Club, Passlof developed a visual language that balanced gestural immediacy with a keen understanding of color and structure.

The ADAA Fair presentation will feature a focused selection of Passlof’s work, including her monumental painting Wednesday from 1956. The title Wednesday likely alludes to Passlof’s own role in shaping the discourse around Abstract Expressionism. In response to the increasing formality of The Club's Friday sessions, she initiated more informal Wednesday evening gatherings that encouraged open, experimental exchange. Wednesday reflects not only her aesthetic developments, but also her role within a critical forum that helped define postwar American art.

Milton Resnick (1917–2004) was born in Ukraine and immigrated to New York City with his family in 1923. He grew up in Brooklyn and entered the American Artists School in 1933. In the 1930s, he was enrolled in the Federal Art Project of the WPA, and met Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, John Graham, and other downtown artists. In 1940, Resnick was drafted and served in the U.S. Army through all of World War II. He studied with Hans Hofmann on the GI Bill after serving and then studying in Paris during and after the war. In New York, he was a founding member of The Club. His work is held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among many other significant institutions.

Resnick’s striking monochrome Edna from 1973 will be among the works featured at the ADAA Fair. The painting is a quintessential example of Resnick’s work at the time, which was characterized by an almost obsessive emphasis on the paint itself, resulting in thick, heavy, imageless canvases.

Schoelkopf Gallery has a close, longstanding relationship with the Art Dealers Association of America. Gallery founder Andrew Schoelkopf served as president of the organization from 2018 to 2021, and Managing Director Alana Ricca is a current member of the ADAA Fair Committee.