DOCSLIB.ORG

The Bennington Legacy: Sculpture by Willard Boepple, Isaac Witkin, and James Wolfe

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Bennington Legacy: Sculpture by Willard Boepple, Isaac Witkin, and James Wolfe FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tower 49 Gallery Presents: The Bennington Legacy: Sculpture by Willard Boepple, Isaac Witkin, and James Wolfe Bennington College Photography by Cynthia Lockin, courtesy of the Bennington College 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, Karen Wilkin. 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 sculptures 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 Helen Frankenthaler, and employed artists Paul Feeley, Anthony Caro, and Jules Olitski, who taught in the art department. Artists David Smith, Kenneth Noland and critic Clement Greenberg 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 modernism 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 “drawing 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 Media Contact Lainya Magaña, A&O PR (p) 415.577.1275 | (e) [email protected] .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Anthony Caro/Jules Olitski
    Press Release Feb 12, 2019 ANTHONY CARO/JULES OLITSKI The 70s - 80s March 16 – May 11, 2019 Jules Olitski and Anthony Caro (detail), c.1964, South Shaftsbury, Vermont, USA Galerie Templon’s latest exhibition establishes a fascinating dialogue between Anthony Caro (1924-2013), pioneer of abstract sculpture, and Jules Olitski (1922-2007), master of Colour Field painting. With a collection of works from the 1970s and ’80s, the new exhibition celebrates the unique creative friendship between the British sculptor and the American painter of Russian descent, companions for close to 50 years. Anthony Caro and Jules Olitski both paved the way to a new form of abstract art. Right from the early 1960s, they stood out for their radical experiments, tirelessly exploring new methods and materials. The exhibition highlights the capacity for innovation of two artists on a quest to redefine their medium, with their friendship as one of the catalysts. In 1963, after years of mutual admiration, Anthony Caro and Jules Olitski met and started exchanging letters, ideas and artworks. The sculptures and paintings of the 1970s and ’80s reflect their research on the fundamentals of surface, space and shape, the notions of density and lightness. In Sir Anthony Caro’s view: ‘Sculpture sits midway between painting and architecture, particularly abstract sculpture. It lies in between. We have to find this place, in between.’ In the 1970s and ’80s, he focused mainly on steel, oxidised metal, the use and forms of machines and industrial elements. As for Jules Olitski, after perfecting a spray-painting technique for laying colour onto his canvases, in the 1970s he went on to develop new techniques, spreading colours with a cloth or scraper or laying them on with a roller to create thickly structured surfaces.
    [Show full text]
  • Amy Medford Resume
    Amy Medford 1 Timbersong Dr. Sculptor Weaverville, NC 28787 www.ContemporarySculptors.com 828.484.9114 [email protected] EDUCATION 1983-86 Apprenticeship in Sculpture, Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture Mercerville, New Jersey, 1983 A.B., Cornell University, Ithaca, New York SPECIAL STUDIES 1989-90 Independent study in stone carving, Pietrasanta, Italy PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 1986-present Sculptor, primarily in bronze and terra cotta 2014-2015 Gallery director, Artetude Gallery, Asheville, NC. 1993-2012 Co-owner and designer/sculptor, Avant-Garde Studios, Roosevelt, New Jersey. Models, reproductions and design of any 3D object in any size and in any material. Illustration and 2D graphics. 1991-1993 Antiquities Reproduction, Sadigh Gallery, New York, New York 1991-1993 Designer of Furniture, Conversation Pieces Inc., Princeton, New Jersey 1990-1995 Gallery Director, Quietude Garden Gallery, Sculpture Garden, E. Brunswick NJ ONE AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2020-2021 Mason Fine Art, Atlanta, GA, November-January 2015-2019 Weaverville Art Safari, Spring/Fall 2015 Mariboe Gallery, Peddie School, Hightstown, NJ2000 - Roosevelt Arts Project 2013 "Grounded: Meditations in the Human Form”, Artetude Gallery, Asheville, NC September-October 2006 7th Annual Hardy Family Art Exhibition “Savior Affair”, Nemacolin Woodlands, March- November 2003 Sandarac Gallery, Baltimore, MD, October 2001 Gruss Center for Visual Arts, Lawrenceville, NJ, October 1997 Mariboe Gallery, Peddie School, Hightstown, NJ 1995 Schering Plough, Madison, NJ June - September 1994 Quietude Garden Galleries East Brunswick, NJ October - November 1994 Johnson and Johnson, New Brunswick NJ March - April 1993 Dorothy Macrae Gallery, Atlanta, GA May - June 1991 Kornbluth Gallery, Fairlawn NJ November 3 - 24 1989 1990 The Extension Gallery Mercerville NJ March 1988 The Extension Gallery, Mercerville, NJ February SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2015 “Asheville in the Third Dimension”, Artetude Gallery, Asheville, NC.
    [Show full text]
  • Modernism 1 Modernism
    Modernism 1 Modernism Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism.[2] [3] [4] Arguably the most paradigmatic motive of modernism is the rejection of tradition and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms.[5] [6] [7] Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment thinking and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God.[8] [9] In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an Hans Hofmann, "The Gate", 1959–1960, emerging fully industrialized world. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 collection: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. injunction to "Make it new!" was paradigmatic of the movement's Hofmann was renowned not only as an artist but approach towards the obsolete. Another paradigmatic exhortation was also as a teacher of art, and a modernist theorist articulated by philosopher and composer Theodor Adorno, who, in the both in his native Germany and later in the U.S. During the 1930s in New York and California he 1940s, challenged conventional surface coherence and appearance of introduced modernism and modernist theories to [10] harmony typical of the rationality of Enlightenment thinking.
    [Show full text]
  • To See Anew: Experiencing American Art in the 21St Century
    Initiatives in Art and Culture To See Anew: Experiencing American Art in the 21st Century 21ST ANNUAL AMERICAN ART CONFERENCE FRIDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 20 – 21, 2016 1851, after an original of 1851, The Greek Slave, The Greek Stuart Davis, Swing Landscape, 1938, oil on canvas, 86¾ x 172⅞ in. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, Indiana. © Estate of Stuart Davis/Licensed Hiram Powers, Powers, Hiram Art University x 18¼ in. Yale 1844, marble, 65¼ x 21 Dann Fund. 1962.43, Olive Louise Gallery, by VAGA, New York, NY. Jonathan Boos. Jonathan Boos. 36 x 29 in. Private collection; photo: courtesy, canvas, Guy Pène du Bois, Country Wedding, Henry Peters Gray, The Wages of War, 1848, oil on 1929, oil on canvas, 48¼ x 76¼ in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Several Ladies and Gentlemen, 1873. 73.5. THE GRADUATE CENTER, THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK To See Anew: Experiencing American Art in the 21st Century 21ST ANNUAL AMERICAN ART CONFERENCE Heilbrun, 1922). Chanler. Robert Winthrop Ivan Narodny, (from: 1921 Chanler, Robert Winthrop New York: William New York: Avian Arabesque, Avian Arabesque, The Art of In this conference, Initiatives in Art and Culture considers iconic works by recognized masters, seeking to understand both why they were celebrated in their own time and why they retain their power today. At the same time, we explore the works of artists who did not retain the renown they enjoyed during their lifetimes and who fell into obscurity. But obscurity is not necessarily forever, and as cycles of taste have changed, these once-forgotten artists and their largely unknown works have re-surfaced to startle us today.
    [Show full text]
  • Jules Olitski Education Expositions
    JULES OLITSKI Né à Snovsk, en Russie en 1922 Décédé en 2007, à New York, États-Unis EDUCATION 1939-42 National Academy of Design, New York, États-Unis 1940-42 Beaux Arts Institute, New York, États-Unis 1949 Ossip Zadkine School, Paris, France 1949-50 Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, France 1952 B.A, New York University, New York, États-Unis 1954 M.A., New York, University, New York, États-Unis EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES (SÉLECTION) 2016 Plexiglas, 1986, Paul Kasmin Gallery, NY, États-Unis 2015 Jules Olitski: On the Edge, A Decade of Innovation, Leslie Feely, New York, États-Unis Jules Olitski: Paintings from the Seventies, Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France 2014 Jules Olitski: Mitt Paintings, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, USA Olitski Visions, Installation at Tower 49 Kato International 12 E 49 St, New York, États-Unis Jules Olitski on An Intimate Scale, Luther W. Brady Gallery, George Washington University, Washington D.C, États-Unis Reading Museum, Reading, PA; Freedman Art, New York, États-Unis 2013 Naples Museum, Naples, Italie Reading Museum, Reading, Royaume-Uni Jules Olitski in the 21st Century, Adelson Galleries, Boston, États-Unis Jules Olitski Colorness, Hackett Mill Gallery, San Francisco, États-Unis Freedman Art, New York, États-Unis 2012 The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, États-Unis The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Espagne American University Museum at The Katzen Arts Center, Washington, États-Unis Luther Brady Gallery, George Washington Univ., Washington, États-Unis 2011 Daura Gallery Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, États-Unis FreedmanArt, New York, États-Unis Revelations: Major paintings by Jules Olitski, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas city, États-Unis 2010 The Butler Museum of American Art, Youngstown, États-Unis Hackett Mill, San Francisco, États-Unis Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges of Albany, Albany, États-Unis The Everson Museum, Syracuse, États-Unis 2009 The Weatherspoon Museum U of NC at Greensboro, États-Unis The Luther W.
    [Show full text]
  • Jules Olitski Education Solo Exhibitions
    JULES OLITSKI Born in 1922 in Snovsk, Russia Died in 2007 in New York, USA. EDUCATION 1939-42 National Academy of Design, New York, USA 1940-42 Beaux Arts Institute, New York, USA 1949 Ossip Zadkine School, Paris, France 1949-50 Academia de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris, France 1952 B.A, New York University, New York, USA 1954 M.A., New York, University, New York, USA SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION) 2016 Plexiglas, 1986, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, USA 2015 Jules Olitski: On the Edge, A Decade of Innovation, Leslie Feely, New York, USA Jules Olitski; Paintings from the Seventies, Galerie Templon, Paris, France 2014 Jules Olitski - Mitt Paintings, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, USA Olitski Visions, Installation at Tower 49 Kato International 12 E 49 St, New York, USA Jules Olitski on An Intimate Scale, Luther W. Brady Gallery, George Washington University, Washington D.C, USA Reading Museum, Reading, PA; Freedman Art, New York, USA 2013 Naples Museum, Naples, Italy Reading Museum, Reading, England Jules Olitski in the 21st Century, Adelson Galleries, Boston, USA Jules Olitski Colorness, Hackett Mill Gallery, San Francisco, USA FreedmanArt, New York, USA 2012 The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Spain American University Museum at The Katzen Arts Center, Washington, USA Luther Brady Gallery, George Washington Univ., Washington, USA 2011 Daura Gallery Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, USA FreedmanArt, New York, USA Revelations: Major paintings by Jules Olitski, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas city, USA 2010 The Butler Museum of American Art, Youngstown, USA Hackett Mill, San Francisco, USA Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges of Albany, Albany, USA The Everson Museum, Syracuse, USA 2009 The Weatherspoon Museum U of NC at Greensboro, USA The Luther W.
    [Show full text]
  • Resisting Abstract Expressionism December 3, Thursday, 7 P.M
    BMAC is open Wednesday through Sundays, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Click here to plan your visit. Please note BMAC will be closed November 11 & 12 to setup the 13th Annual LEGO Contest & Exhibit, which will be on view at the Museum starting Friday, November 13 through Monday November 16, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. There will be a virtual awards ceremony on Saturday, November 14, at 5 p.m. BMAC Online Visit About Exhibits Events Education News Support Home Resisting Abstract Expressionism December 3, Thursday, 7 p.m. Curator Karen Wilkin discusses Figuration Never Died: New York Painterly Painting, 1950-1970, which features work by 10 artists who absorbed the lessons of Abstract Expressionism but never abandoned figurative painting: Robert De Niro, Sr. (1922–2003), Lois Dodd (b. 1927), Jane Freilicher (1924–2014), Paul Georges (1923–2002), Grace Hartigan (1922–2008), Wolf Kahn (1927-2020), Alex Katz (b. 1927), Albert Kresch (b. 1922), Paul Resika (b. 1928), and Anne Tabachnick (1927–1995). The talk will take place via Zoom and Facebook Live. A link to attend will be posted here beforehand. Karen Wilkin is a New York-based curator and art critic and the Atelier Head of Art History at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture, where she teaches in the MFA program. Wilkin was educated at Barnard College and Columbia University and was a Fulbright Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. She is a regular contributor to The New Criterion and The Wall Street Journal as well as a contributing editor for art for The Hudson Review.
    [Show full text]
  • Tucker Mass and Figure
    Tucker Mass and Figure Kosme de Barañano 1 This text is published under an international Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons licence (BY-NC-ND), version 4.0. It may therefore be circulated, copied and reproduced (with no alteration to the contents), but for educational and research purposes only and always citing its author and provenance. It may not be used commercially. View the terms and conditions of this licence at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/4.0/legalcode Using and copying images are prohibited unless expressly authorised by the owners of the photographs and/or copyright of the works. © of the texts: Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa Fundazioa-Fundación Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao © William Tucker, 2015 © Succession Alberto Giacometti (Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris / ADAGP, Paris), VEGAP, Bilbao, 2015 © Man Ray Trust, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2015 © Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2015 Photography credits © Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral, 2014. Photographer: Steve Russell Studios: p. 38. © Collection Swiss Foundation for Photography: p. 29 (bottom). Courtesy McKee Galerie: pp. 34, 37 (bottom), 39, 46 (top). © Kosme de Barañano: pp. 4, 15, 37 (top), 41, 42, 61, 63. © Photo Scala, Florence - courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali: pp. 52, 53 (top, left). © Photographer Roman März, Courtesy of Buchmann Galerie: p. 46 (abajo). © Tate, London 2015: pp. 9-11. © The artist/Pangolin. Photographer: Steve Russell Studios: p. 57. © The British Council: p. 23. © The Estate of Alberto Giacometti (Fondation Giacometti, Paris and ADAGP, Paris), licensed in the UK by ACS and DACS, London 2015 / Bridgeman Images: p. 31. © The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence: p.
    [Show full text]
  • The Museum of Modern Art U West 53 Street, New York, N.Y
    The Museum of Modern Art U West 53 Street, New York, N.Y. 10019 Tel. 956-6100 Cable: Modernart NO. 33 FOR RELEASE: APRIL 30, 1975 PRESS PREVIEW: April 28 11:00am-4:00pm ANTHONY CARO RETROSPECTIVE AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART The first retrospective to be held in the United States of work by the in­ fluential 50-year-old British sculptor, Anthony Caro, will take place at The Museum of Modern Art from April 30 through July 6. The exhibition, installed in the Garden Wing gallery and on the middle and upper terrace of the Museum's Sculpture Garden, includes approximately thirty large steel sculptures and a group of table pieces; some of the works have never previously been exhibited and a number have not before been seen in the United States. Organized by William Rubin, Director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture, who also wrote the accompanying monograph,* the Caro retrospective is presented jointly with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and has been made possible with the assistance of The British Council, London, and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C. It is the first major ex­ hibition of work by a British sculptor to be held at the Museum since its 1947 Henry Moore retrospective and includes works from private collectors and museums in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Surveying the work of the last decade and a half — from the outset of Caro's mature style to the present — the sculpture on view ranges from Midday of 1960, the first of Caro's innovative, horizontally oriented, painted steel pieces to the yery large, unpainted works of the last several years such as Curtain Road of 1974 and Riviera, 1971-75.
    [Show full text]
  • A Finding Aid to the Jules Olitski Papers, 1950-2012, in the Archives of American Art
    A Finding Aid to the Jules Olitski Papers, 1950-2012, in the Archives of American Art Christopher DeMairo The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee. 2021 March 8 Archives of American Art 750 9th Street, NW Victor Building, Suite 2200 Washington, D.C. 20001 https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions https://www.aaa.si.edu/ Table of Contents Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1 Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1 Scope and Contents........................................................................................................ 2 Biographical / Historical.................................................................................................... 2 Arrangement..................................................................................................................... 2 Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 3 Container Listing ............................................................................................................. 4 Series 1: Writing Files, 1965-1976........................................................................... 4 Series 2: Printed Material, 1950-2012....................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • S E L E Cte D Solo E X H I B It I on S
    S E L E CTE D SOLO E X H I B I T I ON S 1963 Rowan Gallery, London 1965 Robert Elkon Gallery, New York 1966 Waddington Gallery, London 1967 Robert Elkon Gallery, New York 1968 Waddington Gallery, London 1969 Robert Elkon Gallery, New York 1970 University Art Gallery, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, Connecticut 1971 Robert Elkon Gallery, New York Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington (retrospective) 1973 Robert Elkon Gallery, New York 1975 Marlborough Gallery, New York 1976 Marlborough Gallery, New York 1977 Marlborough Gallery, New York Tanglewood Music Festival, Lenox, Massachusetts Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire 1978 Marlborough Gallery, New York 1979 Hamilton Gallery of Contemporary Art, New York 1981 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York Hamilton Gallery of Contemporary Art, New York 1982 McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington, D.C. Mattingly Baker Gallery, Dallas 1985 Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York 1986 McIntosh/Drysdale Gallery, Washington, D.C. 1988 Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York 1988-89 Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles 1990 Patricia Hamilton, New York 1991 Locks Gallery, Philadelphia 1992 Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, Korea 1993 Locks Gallery, Philadelphia 1996 Locks Gallery, Philadelphia Isaac Witkin: The Past Decade, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey PUBLIC COMMISSIONS Alcoa Foundation, Pittsburgh CIGNA Corporation, Philadelphia City of Springfield, Massachusetts Government Services Administration, Social Security Building, Baltimore Grounds for
    [Show full text]
  • Glenn Goldberg of Leaves and Clouds OPENING MARCH 5, 2016
    Glenn Goldberg Of Leaves and Clouds OPENING MARCH 5, 2016 FreedmanArt is pleased to present Of Leaves and Clouds, an invitational exhibition featuring paintings, works on paper, and collages by the New York artist Glenn Goldberg, opening Saturday, March 5, 2016, with a reception for the artist from 5:30pm-8:00pm. The subject, Of Leaves and Clouds, will include themes present throughout decades of Goldberg’s work. This exhibition focuses on Goldberg's intimate relationship to a vast world of natural forms. Rather than literal representations of nature (leaves, clouds), these elements reshape themselves and invite sustained looking. The recent paintings bear Goldberg's language of recognizable "dots" and transparent washes of color and grisaille. At once tactile and ephemeral, the "dots" articulate spaces that are both shallow and deep, alive, and unnervingly still. In a recent review, Roberta Smith said of Goldberg's paintings: “He builds his images from infinitesimal dots that give the works an ambiguous, almost celestial ethereality and infuse his surfaces with an air of devotional quiet.” In this way, the marks not only construct pictorial space, but are a record of concentrated attention, time, and devotion. The earlier collages, created during an extended visit in Prato, Italy in 1989, utilize line and opacity in an intuitive and deliberate way. They are graphic in nature, though the hand is always felt. As in the recent works, they rely on layering (Goldberg has referenced making pictures "back to front"), and include ideas of the monumental, air, and privacy, within and across individual works. In a statement for an exhibition at the Albany Museum of Art in 1989, then curator Peter Doroshenko wrote: “[The paintings blend] in a loose philosophical way various western iconography, dream sources, and Freudian imagery.
    [Show full text]