The Columbia Museum of Art Opens "An Artist’s Eye"

Written by Charles Weaver Tuesday, 03 January 2012 23:12

Columbia, SC.- The Columbia Museum of Art has invited guest curator Sigmund Abeles to bring a fresh eye and different perspective to the Museum’s collection of modern and contemporary art. His selection of over 80 works is based on his personal taste, preferences and attitudes about contemporary art, which he developed over a 50-year career. The premise is that an artist brings a different ‘eye’ and set of criteria to the table in evaluating art than does a curator or an art historian, whose training tends toward historical context rather than artistic practice. This different viewpoint – born from a background of method, process, creation and materials – can yield a new and interesting perspective to the selection and display of modern and contemporary artwork from our collection. The exhibition "An Artist’s Eye" remains on view at the museum until October 23rd.

The key to an exhibition of this nature is finding the right artist. We determined that we wanted someone who was a respected artist within the national scene, had the length of career that would allow him or her to put the artistic developments of the last 50 years (the strength of our modern and contemporary collection) into perspective, was articulate and well-versed in artistic styles and materials of the 20th century, and, if possible, had a connection to South Carolina. Sigmund Abeles was born 1934 in New York City and raised in South Carolina.  He is an artist whose work deals with the expressive and psychological aspects of the human figure (and animals); an art focused on the entire life cycle. Drawing informs all his work. He works in pastels, oils, the graphic media, and sculpture.  Currently, Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, after 27 years of teaching, he is working full-time in his NYC and upstate New York studio.  Recipient of numerous grants and awards, a National Academician; Abeles work is in the collections  of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others.  Coastal Carolina University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2000. A major one-artist exhibition was at Thomas Williams Fine Arts, London, UK in 2000. The Pastel Society of America made him their Hall of Fame Honoree for 2004 and was awarded their Degas Pastel Society Award in 2006.

He is represented by The Old Print Shop, NYC, Hampton III Gallery, Greenville, SC and Cherly Newby Fine Arts, Pawley's Island, S.C.  "From Whence I Came" a retrospective was held at the Burroughs-Chapin Museum of Art in Myrtle Beach, SC, his hometown, in 2007. "Passionate Lives, Passionate Lines", dual solo exhibits open in May  at The Park Row Gallery and The Joyce Goldstein Gallery in Chatham NY.  He is included in Humanity, One Hundred Years of Figurative Art at the ACA Gallery in NYC.

The Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina has a collection of European and American fine and decorative art that spans several centuries. The museum building was transformed from an urban department store into a light-filled space with 25 galleries. The museum has a Renaissance and Baroque collection – a gift from the Samuel Kress Foundation, which features Old Master paintings, many of which were commissioned by churches in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries. Nativity scenes, Madonna and Child paintings, and scenes from the Old and New Testaments are featured in the museum's upstairs galleries. The museum also has a large and rare Nativity fresco transferred to canvas by Sandro Botticelli, a pre-eminent Florentine Renaissance artist. Also in the museum’s permanent collection are "The Seine at Giverny" by Claude Monet and art glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The decorative arts holdings at the museum number around 3,000 objects, ranging in date primarily between the 17th and 20th centuries. Some Asian objects in the Turner Collection date back to the T'ang Dynasty. Holdings include silver, Chinese export porcelain, contemporary art glass, American furniture, textiles and sculpture. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.columbiamuseum.org

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