Sideo Fromboluti, Trees and Rocks

Though grounded in the visible world, Trees and Rocks takes its cues from Abstract Expressionism, placing value on sensation, the importance of the entire pictorial field, and the intensity of the encounter between the viewer and the painting. Shades of orange pulse against blue and green, competing for dominance, shifting backward and forward in space.

Fromboluti was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, one month after his parents had immigrated from Tuscany, Italy. The family soon moved to South Philadelphia, where Fromboluti was encouraged by his father and teachers to draw as a way to compensate for his difficulties in learning to speak English. In 1938 he entered Temple University's Tyler School of Art, where he met Doris Staffel and her room-mates, Lillian Lent and Nora Speyer. Fromboluti and Speyer married in 1943 and moved to New York where they remained and shared a studio throughout their careers.

Fromboluti recalls: "Lillian, Doris, and Nora had met in the Tyler School dormitories and, not being sorority types, moved into (an) apartment on Star Road (in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania). They were proud and eager to break from their restricted, conventional previous life and honored individuality above all else. They understood each other perfectly… They had parties and sketch classes and plotted and schemed together in total harmony.”