Isaac Witkin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Isaac Witkin
Wild Iris, 1974, at the Delaware Art Museum
Born(1936-05-10)10 May 1936
Died23 April 2006(2006-04-23) (aged 69)

Isaac Witkin (10 May 1936 – 23 April 2006) was an internationally renowned modern sculptor born in

Phillip King, William G. Tucker, David Annesley, and Michael Bolus. Witkin helped create a new style of sculpture which led to this New Generation of sculptors and their innovating abstract forms of modern sculpture reaching and changing the art world.[1]
Witkin's abstract works of usually brightly colored fiberglass or wood was noted for its "witty, Pop-Art look".

Biography

After graduating from Saint Martin's in 1960, Witkin was an apprentice of

Primary Structures" at the Jewish Museum in New York representing the British influence on the "New Art" anchored by Anthony Caro
.

Witkin then moved from pupil to teacher, teaching at Saint Martin's for two years. He then moved to the United States. At Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, Witkin worked with a community of artists known as "the Green Mountain boys" who either taught at the school or were part of the local arts community, including notables such as painter Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Poons, Paul Feeley and Jules Olitski and art critic Clement Greenberg.

Witkin's works at this time were in the style of formalist abstractions, moving from the fiberglass and wood of his earlier works to heavy welded steel industrial structures with complex

The Metropolitan Museum of Art on November 7, 1976. In 1978 Witkin moved to New Jersey, becoming associated with the Johnson Atelier, Princeton, New Jersey
, where he was an artist in residence.

During this time Witkin developed the style which would form the remainder of his works. Here he discovered a process of pouring molten bronze into wet sand on the ground to create organic appearing forms. By assembling these forms he engaged in "...creating language out of the behavioral flow of metal, wresting order from chaos" as he is quoted as describing the process in his obituary at The Times Online website. The remainder of his works were primarily in bronze, both poured and then cast, colored by chemicals to have a variety of patinas. However, some later work was also done in stone, though in the same style as the poured bronzes.

Later years

Witkin subsequently taught at the

Royal Society of British Sculptors. During his career Witkin also received the following awards: State of New Jersey Art Achievement Award, Burlington County College Foundation; Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant; New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant and in 1981 a Guggenheim Fellowship
.

Through his work Witkin became an acquaintance of fellow sculptor and patron of the arts

. His work is also displayed on his family's website, www.isaacwitkin.com.

Isaac Witkin died 23 April 2006 of a heart attack at his home in Pemberton, New Jersey.[3] He is survived by his two daughters, his sizeable body of work, and the artists it has inspired.

See also

References

  1. ^ Juliff, Toby (2018). "A New Generation of British Art: A Problem of Provincialism". Sydney: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. pp. 125–145.
  2. ^ Juliff, Toby (2018). "A New Generation of British Art: A Problem of Provincialism". Sydney: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. pp. 125–145.
  3. ^ Johnson, Ken. "Isaac Witkin, 69, Innovator in Abstract Metal Sculpture, Is Dead", The New York Times, 29 April 2006. Accessed 4 February 2013. "Isaac Witkin, a sculptor whose bold, colorful abstractions helped to shake up the art scenes in London and New York in the 1960s, died on Sunday at his home in Pemberton, N.J."

Sources

  • Juliff, Toby, 'A New Generation of British Art: A Problem of Provincialism' in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, vol 18. n.1 pp. 125–145
  • "Isaac Witkin Obituary", Times Online; "Isaac Witkin", Grounds for Sculpture Website, isaacwitkin.com

External links