Animal-like creature with wings and tail all colorfully decorated.

In the mid-1940s, Gerome Kamrowski and a handful of his colleagues studied European Surrealism, seeking in its theories and practice a new, distinctly personal, American style of painting. In doing so, they laid the foundations for Abstract Expressionism. Through his artwork Kamrowski experimented with imagery that combined biological forms with natural sciences. He frequently spent time studying specimens at the American Museum of Natural history, creating models and drawings for his paintings and sculptures. Later in his career he focused more on his sculptures, creating “beaded beasts,” wooden structures ornamented with beads, paint and other small items that assumed the forms of fantastical creatures.