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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, Dawn, 1975-76, oil on canvas, 40 1/4 x 47 in. (102.2 x 119.4 cm).
We are pleased to announce Revisiting and Repositioning the Work of Irving Kriesberg, an exhibition highlighting several prominent paintings and works on paper that were inspired by Kriesberg's unique global perspective on art and culture. The works on view reflect Kriesberg's experiential knowledge of Eastern philosophy, religions, and cultural traditions, as a result of his time spent living and working in India and Japan. The exhibition will open on May 10th via Vin Gallery's online viewing room on Artsy.
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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Cover of the exhibition catalogue for Irving Kriesberg’s solo show at the Curt Valentin Gallery in 1955.
Irving Kriesberg’s first solo-show was a bittersweet occasion. The exhibition, which ran from April 26 to May 14, 1955, was at the one of New York City’s most prestigious galleries owned by the esteemed German-Jewish art dealer Curt Valentin. Valentin, directed his eponymous gallery on 32 east 57th street, and was renowned for presenting seminal avant-garde modern artists to New York’s burgeoning fine art scene. He organized exhibitions featuring artworks by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Max Beckmann, Henry Moore, Marino Marini, and Jacques Lipchitz.
Lipchitz, a seminal Cubist sculptor, took a liking to Kriesberg’s work and introduced him to Valentin, who signed Kriesberg to his roster of artists. Kriesberg’s first show at the Curt Valentin Gallery was in 1953. It was a group exhibition featuring contemporary works by Kriesberg, Reg Butler, Bruno Cassina, Jan Cox, and Alton Pickens. Valentin set the stage for Kriesberg’s first solo show, but he passed away the year before and his gallery, which was ran posthumously for a year, eventually closed towards the end of 1955.
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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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Fox, Margalit. "Irving Kriesberg, 90, Artist of Dreamlike Landscapes." New York Times (New York, New York), November 18, 2009, p. A28.
Ten years ago today, Irving Kriesberg passed away at the age of 90. In his New York Times obituary (published on Nov. 18, 2009), Margalit Fox writes: “Where hard-line Abstract Expressionists shunned figural elements in their work, Mr. Kriesberg used them lavishly. As a result, he was often called a Figurative Expressionist; the term applied to midcentury Expressionists whose work was not strictly abstract.
But as often as not, Mr. Kriesberg’s work transcended category. Though it teemed with figures — frogs, birds, people, angels and much else — it was anything but representational. Normally small creatures tower and loom, dancers weave through space at unorthodox angles, and customarily static objects appear fluid and sinuous. All these things gave his work a sense of wit and mystery.”
Read the full New York Times obituary here.
