Cooper Hewitt says...
Gandy Brodie (American, 1924-1975) studied dance and jazz before teaching himself to paint, inspired by the paintings of Van Gogh, Klee and Picasso. Brodie’s style was considered second-generation abstract expressionism. He was known for his dense and thickly layered paintings, and for depicting simple, stark, and sometimes isolated subjects, many of which recurred throughout his career.
In 1951, Meyer Schapiro selected Brodie for a two-person New Talent show at the Kootz Gallery in New York, alongside Cy Twombly.
Brodie was the recipient of a Mark Twain Art award (1958), Longview Foundation Purchase Grants (1960-1961), an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award (1962), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969), a National Council for the Arts Award (1969), and a Rothko Foundation Grant (1975). He taught at the New School (1967-1968), Carnegie Mellon University (1969-1970), the University of Pennsylvania (1970-1971), and Elmira College (1971-1975).
He and his wife, Jocelyn Levine, had one son, Shane, and lived in West Townshend, Vermont.
After Brodie died at age 51, his art continued to be shown at the Sidney Janis, Knoedler, Edward Thorpe, and Salander-O'Reilly galleries. His work is represented by Steven Harvey Fine Art Project in New York. His paintings and drawings are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Neuberger Museum of Art, and the Phillips Collection.
