Friday, May 23 - Sunday, August 31, 2008

Gallery 6

This exhibition will look at the masterful drawings of Sigmund Abeles and Jerome Witkin. Both artists work in expressive styles and many works by each focus on figurative imagery.

Abeles’s work includes  domestic scenes ranging from personal to staged images. Witkin’s work includes images of everyday life, but also more expansive images relating to the Holocaust.

Sigmund Abeles (1934- ) was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Myrtle Beach, SC. His prints have received international acclaim and his work is in the permanent collections of more than 100 museums, galleries, universities and corporations including the Library of Congress, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, New York’s Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art.

Prestigious honors bestowed on the artist include the 1979 William T. Korn Prize in the 57th Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Graphic Artists in New York and the 1981 Ralph Fabri Prize at the 156th Annual Exhibition at New York’s National Academy of Design. He was chosen to be an Elected National Academician by the National Academy of Design in 1991.

Jerome Witkin (1939-) was born in Brooklyn, NY and his formal art education began at age 16 when he received a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting. Among his teachers there were Isabel Bishop, George Grosz, Jack Levine and Ben Shahn.

Each of these teachers wove social convictions into their artwork and made a permanent impression on Witkin. In the late 1950s he studied at Cooper Union Art Institute in New York and was influenced by Abstract Expressionism.

Witkin went to Europe in 1960 on a Pulitzer Scholarship where he studied Renaissance painting, but the greatest influence during this trip was the work of Käthe Kollwitz and what Witkin called her “unflinching attention to human grief.”

Uncommon Expressions: The Drawings of Sigmund Abeles and Jerome Witkin will look at the human condition, from the domestic to the epic, through the eyes of these two exceptional artists.

This exhibition is organized and curated by the Asheville Art Museum.

Image credit:

(top)

Sigmund Abeles
Souring Kestrel, E.L., Director/Sculptor, 1990
Pastel on paper
40 x 30 inches
Courtesy of the Artist

(lower)

Jerome Witkin
Paul Cronin, 2005
Mixed media on paper
32 x 21 inches
Courtesy of ACA Galleries, New York City

Related programs:

Exhibition opens
Friday, May 23, 5:00 p.m.

Opening reception
Friday, May 30, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Special screening of the film Alice Neel at the Fine Arts Theatre
Thursday, June 12, 7:00 p.m.

Art Break, Discussion with Warren Wilson College Professor Dusty Benedict
Friday, June 20, 12:00 p.m.

Last day to view exhibition
Sunday, August 31, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.