Charles Frederic Ramsey (1875-1951) was the earliest artist to champion the radical ideas of abstraction within the established Impressionist art colony of New Hope, Pennsylvania. Although some of Ramsey's innovative paintings were just as avant-garde as those of leading New York modernists, his work was virtually unknown outside of the New Hope colony. Omitted from all of the major exhibition catalogues devoted to American abstract paintings over the past thirty years, with the exception of one with regional focus, Charles Ramsey's ambitious and daring modernist work is now fertile material for criticism and acclaim.

As early as 1953 (if two years after his death can be deemed "early"), critic Frederick Walker recognized Ramsey's ta...