Born in
Brooklyn, New York, on November 6, 1934, Abeles grew up in
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The only child of Samuel and Henrietta Abeles, he was named after his grandfather, a renowned
Orthodox Rabbi who immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1901. His mother was of Polish-Jewish descent and worked as a librarian before her marriage. During his high school years, Sigmund was mentored by Truman Moore Sr., a wood sculptor, who pointed him towards the Boston artist
Gerard Francis Tempest whom he later apprenticed with. Abeles attended the University of South Carolina, initially for pre-medical studies to appease his mother but he later switched to art studies. There he met
Jasper Johns, an upper classman and became long term acquaintances. They shared the same art professors, Edmund Yaghijian and
Catharine Rembert. In 1952, Abeles attended
Pratt Institute in Brooklyn for only one semester because his mother would only allow him to study commercial art. In the summer of 1954, determined to pursue his love for fine arts and figurative study, he attended the
Art Students League of New York where he was taught by
Reginald Marsh,
Morris Kantor and
Harry Sternberg. In 1955, he received a scholarship to the
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He worked under
Edwin Dickinson and Isabel Bishop. There he also made lifelong friendships with fellow students Sidney Hurwitz,
Philip Grausman,
Jerome Witkin and
Ashley Bryan. In 1957, he received another scholarship to study at
Columbia University where he received his MFA in Painting in just one year. Shortly after graduating, Abeles was drafted into the army in 1957. He was posted to Heidelberg, Germany where he worked as a technical illustrator in a cartography workshop at the US Headquarters Army where he made charts and maps for top secret nuclear war plans. There he rented a house off base in nearby Neckargemünd that belonged to a sculptor. It was here he developed a renewed interest in creating sculptures. After serving two years in the army, he was discharged in Europe and spent the next year touring Italy, Greece and Israel with his then first wife, Gina Godwin. They raised two children, David Paul and Shoshanna Lynn upon coming back to the US. In 1960, Abeles returned to Columbia, South Carolina, and found himself without a job. He briefly taught adults at a local community art center until a position opened up at the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts, recommended to him. It was his first full time teaching job, which was to last three years. The year 1965 was Abeles' strongest New York art world year as a recognized artist there. He was included in that year’s Whitney Annual which was devoted to his prints and sculpture. Then the Museum of Modern Art bought his etching “ Self Portrait with Cats”. That was the only time both his estranged parents attended an art event he was included in. That same year, the National Institute of Arts and Letters awarded Abeles a grant and honor. His early anti war work in drypoint and etching was introduced there by
Lewis Mumford. From 1964 to 1969, he was resident artist at Wellesley College which, despite not offering a studio art major at the time, had some of the brightest students the artist recalls having taught. In 1967, Abeles was awarded a sabbatical grant from teaching at Wellesley College by the newly founded National Council of Arts and Humanities which is now called the
National Endowment for the Arts. He spent that year making large anti Vietnam war color prints as well as a body of terra cotta sculptures from the figure. In his first 20 years as an artist, Abeles mostly worked in black and white etchings, drawings and sculpture. Color was reintroduced into his works when he discovered pastel which was an extension of his drawings beginning in 1979. Abeles died on December 21, 2025, at the age of 91. == Publications ==