Catherine Arapoff's abstract paintings may be her most significant contribution, but her body of work spans a wide range.
Arapoff's contributions are multi-faceted, and each viewer will find their own favorites in her work. Additionally, Arapoff's different styles were in constant conversation: For example, in the 1980s a new departure in her realism marked a turning point in her abstract work as well. Many may find Arapoff's abstract works to be her most important, but this page highlights the development of her different genres roughly in the order in which they first make a substantial appearance in her body of work. Please scroll down and click on the links at the left to see examples of each genre. This website presents only a sampling of her works; a catalogue raisonné is in progress.
As a child in the 1940s, Arapoff trained as an icon painter. In the 1960s, she adapted the icon style but also created religious block prints that verged on abstraction. Arapoff's abstracts (discussed below) often explored religious themes.
In 1950s Boston, Arapoff received traditional training in anatomy, figure drawing, and painting. She began to work in oils in the 1970s, creating portraits as well as finely-detailed miniatures. Beginning in the 1980s, her figurative works also tackled social issues. In the 2010s, Arapoff returned to drawing and painting live models.
Arapoff's abstract work began in earnest in the late 1970s with hard-edged abstraction. In the early 1980s her new painterly freedom (noted below) migrated from her realism to her abstracts, which became ever larger and more muscular, with strong colors and generous impasto. From the 2000s on, Arapoff's abstract works gradually decreased in size, but maintained their vitality.
In the late 1960s Arapoff married, moved to New York City, and paused her painting for family reasons. Her early 1970s work included a number of delicately-rendered flower paintings. In the early 1980s Arapoff began spending summers in rural New York, and this initiated a profound departure from her earlier work. Her still life paintings broke into a much freer style, with notable impasto. She also began painting lyrical landscapes (inspired by the countryside), with elements of abstraction in them.