FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tower 49 Gallery Presents: The Bennington Legacy: by Willard Boepple, , and James Wolfe

Bennington College Photography by Cynthia Lockin, courtesy of the archives

Exhibition Dates: April 29th­October 29th, 2015 Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 29th, 5:30­8:00 PM

New York, NY (April 7, 2015) – Tower 49 Gallery is pleased to present T​he Bennington Legacy: Sculpture by Willard Boepple, Isaac Witkin, and James Wolfe,​ co­curated by Tower 49 Gallery Director, Ai Kato and writer and curator, . T​he Bennington Legacy t​races the lineage of a group of influential artists and teachers who were associated with the abstract modernist movement at the eponymous college, located in Bennington, VT, from the early 60s through the 80s. This exhibition will present a selection of mostly newer and monoprints by three artists from the younger Bennington generation who embodied and subsequently expanded the legacy of their predecessors. An opening reception will be held on A​ pril 29th from 5:30 to 8:30pm ​in Tower 49 Gallery’s lobbies and two public plazas, located at 1​2 E. 49th St.​

By the 1960s, the picturesque New England town of Bennington, VT had become a hub for prominent artists, with Bennington College hosting exhibitions for Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman. The school was also alma mater for , and employed artists , , and Jules Olitski, who taught in the art department. Artists , and critic lived nearby and were part of the local art community as well.

The proximity and proliferation of these artists working together during such an important time in the history of provided a fertile environment for younger artists to reconsider earlier definitions of painting and sculpture and further the school’s legacy. Co­curator and author of the B​ ennington Legacy c​atalogue essay, Karen Wilkin, describes that legacy by explaining that the artists ​“were generally committed to abstraction and to the fundamental belief that any painting or sculpture had to be alive. That is to say, it didn't have to look like anything that already existed in our world, but it had to have the presence of something real and demand our attention in the same way.”

Isaac Witkin, who was known for his formalist abstractions, was invigorated by the forms and structures working in steel allowed him to experiment with, as well as the medium’s seeming contradictions—delicacy and volume, fragility and strength. His piece, S​ hogun (​1968), which will be displayed in Tower 49’s outdoor public plaza, elegantly captures the gravity­defying, delicately balanced voluminous forms that typify Witkin’s work at the time.

Witkin’s sculpture assistant in the late 60’s, and the individual credited with teaching him the technical aspects of welding, was the young artist James Wolfe. Having worked at Bennington as a Technical Director and theater set builder, it wasn’t until his position as Witkin’s assistant that Wolfe began to study sculpture as an artistic practice. Originally volumetric, Wolfe’s sculptures developed over time through a method of sculpture making the artist refers to as “ in steel”. Pieces such as “Could Be” and “Just Right” appear weightless and in motion; sinuous and flowing ribbons of brightly colored, powder coated steel twist and turn as though floating on air.

Following Wolfe as Witkin’s assistant, Willard Boepple was a student of painting who immediately took to welding under Witkin’s tutelage. Planar and openly constructed, Boepple’s sculptures reference objects of utility—ladders, shelves, scaffolds—as the artist puts it, “things the body uses”. Most recently, Boepple returned to his roots as a painter to create a series of monoprints constructed of planar layers of color. Connecting the timeline of the artist’s practice from painting to sculpture and back again, Tower 49 Gallery will present a selection of prints alongside Boepple’s sculptures.

With similar practices yet distinctly divergent approaches, T​he Bennington Legacy ​presents the work of three artists whose intertwined histories and shared commitment to abstraction furthered a tradition that takes visitors back to the early roots of modernism.

About Tower 49 Gallery Located in Tower 49, a Skidmore Owings and Merrill, forty­five­story shimmering green glass office tower, Tower 49 Gallery displays original works of art in the lobby galleries, including those by esteemed artists such as Frank Stella, Mark Di Suvero, and Shigeno Ichimura. Tower 49 opened in 2014 with an inaugural exhibition displayed by the Olitski Estate entitled, “Olitski Visions” by Jules Olitski.

For more information, visit ​h​ttp://www.tower49nyc.com/gallery49

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