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Irving Kriesberg, Maternal Image, 1958, il on canvas 40 x 32 in. (101.6 x 81.3 cm). Gift of Anonymous donor; Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, 2005 (SN11126.2)
A recent exhibition at the Ringling Museum of Art highlighted the diversity among the generations of painters who painted within the Expressionist mode during the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
Read moreThree of Kriesberg’s innovative mobile paintings from the 1950s will be on view from September 15 to November 21, 2020 at Anita Shapolsky Gallery in the group exhibition Off the Wall.
In 1945, Kriesberg got a job with the Arkraft Strauss Sign Corporation and created artwork that animated large Broadway "spectaculars," which were iconic illuminated signs, replete with special effects and movable parts. Kriesberg’s interest in animation and sequential imagery led to an experimental drive to display his own paintings in ways that distanced them from traditional viewing methods. In the 1950s, Kriesberg began to construct multiple panel paintings that are double sided and affixed to armatures where they can be rotated. Each panel has the ability to be manually turned to reveal multiple compositions, thereby expanding the viewer’s pictorial perspective and extending the painting off the wall in a manner akin to sculpture in the round.
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These two featured works on paper, Neshoba and Angry Dog, respond to one of many dark moments during the Civil Rights era.
Read moreIn celebration of Father’s Day, this post contains a recent video of Matthias Kriesberg discussing Irving Kriesberg as an artist and father. Also featured is a 1978 painting called Father and Son.
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On June 12th 1982, thousands of protestors gathered in New York City to call for peace and denuclearization. Kriesberg was one of the many in attendance, and his iconic 38 x 24 foot banner, Peace Dove, adorned the facade of the New York Cultural Center’s headquarters at 2 Columbus Circle (currently the Museum of Arts and Design).
Kriesberg’s image became a de facto symbol for the myriad of socially engaged issues facing the global community, such as the anti-war, antinuclear, and Middle East peace movements. It was reproduced in several countries, and featured on the cover of the book Realizing Peace, by his brother Louis Kriesberg.
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Irving Kriesberg, Acorn or Chestnut, acrylic on paper, 29 x 23 in. (73.7 x 58.4 cm). Private collection
Poetry was an important influence on Kriesberg’s art, frequently referenced in both titles of works and in the lyrical nature of his metaphorical imagery. Between 1964 and 1965, Kriesberg collaborated on a series of ‘poem board’ paintings with his first wife, the poet Ruth Miller, and another poet named Ruth Stephen. Below is a virtual presentation of these collaborative poem/painting hybrids.
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Irving Kriesberg, Departure, 1994, oil on canvas, 66 x 59 in. (167.6 x 149.9 cm). Collection of the Estate of Irving Kriesberg.
Max Beckmann was born on this day in 1884. Beckmann's style of figurative art that blends the spiritual and profane through a unique painterly lens and makes allegorical commentary on contemporary life, had a profound impact on Kriesberg's own art making.
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Irving Kriesberg, Ezekiel, 1971 installation view at Beth Emet Synagogue, Evanston, Illinois.
43 years ago on the evening of Shabbat, September 17th, 1976, Irving Kriesberg’s seven panel mural titled Ezekiel (1971) was presented to the Beth Emet Synagogue in Evanston, Illinois. The large painting references the Biblical passage #Ezekiel: 37, The Valley of Dry Bones. The context of this passage and how it relates to the content and symbols in Kriesberg’s painting was published in Beth Emet’s Bulletin, which is featured in this post from the archives.
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Irving Kriesberg, Ascension, 1997, oil on canvas, 64 x 65 in. (162.6 x 165.1 cm) Gift of an anonymous donor; Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri (2005.22.01)
Irving Kriesberg’s Ascension (1997) is included in the current exhibition: Weird & Eerie: Selections of Extraordinary Character at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art.
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Irving Kriesberg, Prometheus, 1978, oil on canvas, 58 x 44 in. Collection of University Art Museum, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York
The feminist author, Jane Alpert, was inspired and awestruck seeing the painting Prometheus (1978) by Kriesberg and wrote a poem in response to it. The typewritten poem is titled “On A Painting by Irving Kriesberg” (1978). This post analyzes the painting and features Alpert’s original typewritten poem, which is in the archives of the Irving Kriesberg Estate.
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