Just In: Recent Acquisitions in Sculpture and Relief

JUST IN

Recent Acquisitions of Sculpture and Relief

JUST IN

Recent Acquisitions of Sculpture and Relief

CONTENTS Foreword 3 Illustrated Works 6

November 17, 2018–April 14, 2019

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FOREWORD

This exhibition celebrates recent gifts of sculpture to Woodmere.

Artists work in three dimensions using clay, wool, burlap, bronze, copper, porcelain, plaster, wood, gold, cement, iron, paint, and found objects to make visual statements and express their emotions.

The collection is always becoming more inclusive, and this growth enhances our ability to “tell the stories of Philadelphia’s art and artists.” Woodmere thanks the following generous individuals, whose gifts of art are on view in our galleries for the first time: Andrea M. Baldeck, Charles L. Blockson, Cynthia Carlson, Helen Cunningham and Ted Newbold, Larry Day and Ruth Fine, Florinda Donato Doelp and David W. Doelp, Leonard and Helen Evelev, Janet Fleisher, Robert E. and Frances Coulborn Kohler, the family of John D. Lear, Jr., Margery P. Lee, Ann E. and Donald W. McPhail, Harvey S. Shipley Miller, June and Perry Ottenberg, Bruce Pollock, the Italo Scanga Foundation, Doris Staffel, and Anthony Visco.

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CORRIDOR GALLERY

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PHOEBE ADAMS American, born 1953

Adams conjures organic forms like bones,

(top) Untitled Date unknown Bronze

even forms that seem architectural take

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the June and Perry Ottenberg Estate, 2018

Albany. Her work is in the collection of

fossils, or marine life in her sculpture. Her interest in nature is a driving passion, and on a corporeal aspect.

Adams received her bachelor of fine arts from the Philadelphia College of art and her master of arts from S.U.N.Y., the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,

(bottom) Untitled Date unknown Bronze

the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and numerous other museums.

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the June and Perry Ottenberg Estate, 2018

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ED BING LEE American. born 1933

Bing Lee created this work through

Ode to Klimt 1996 Yarn on fabric

knots of multicolored embroidery floss

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Ann E. and Donald W. McPhail, 2013

painting by Viennese artist Gustav Klimt

a technique known as knotting. The image is made through a series of over a free-hanging linen warp. Lee appropriated the likeness of biblical heroine Judith from a well-known (1862–1918).

Lee received a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State College and a master’s degree in painting and graphics from Brooklyn College. Later, he became the head of the design department at Craftex Mills near Philadelphia. He has also held teaching positions at the University of the Arts and Moore College of Art and Design, where he taught offloom techniques and learned knotting.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2007. Lee’s work is in numerous private collections and is regularly shown throughout the United States as well as at Snyderman-Works Gallery in Philadelphia.

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BILL WALTON American, 1931–2010

Walton was an admired conceptual artist

West of Roulette #3 Date unknown Copper, cotton, and gesso

would be constantly fresh, with no date

Woodmere Art Museum: Museum purchase, 2016

from a bar, a mysterious “couple” frozen

in Philadelphia who did not date his work; in this way, he felt the work of art to anchor it in time. Here he dipped two pieces of fabric into a gesso medium and allowed them to harden. They hang in time, and we are asked to contemplate their relationship.

Walton taught at Drexel University and Moore College of Art and Design. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and Locks Gallery, among others.

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THOMAS CHIMES American, 1921–2009

In the early 1940s, Chimes enrolled in

Multiplax 1971 Aluminum, plexiglas, and paper

by his service in the United States Air

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Dmitri and Sheila Chimes, 2011

the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, but his studies were interrupted Force in the years of World War II. After the war, he studied philosophy at Columbia University and enrolled in the painting and sculpture program at the Art Students League in New York.

Upon moving back to Philadelphia in 1953, he received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, which

In the late 1960s and early 1970s

enabled him to develop his practice.

Chimes made metal box constructions.

Chimes’s work is in the collections of the

Some have working gears and kinetic

Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Museum

elements, others are overtly erotic, and

of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the

many include abstruse, coded language.

Museum of Modern Art, New York; the

Multiplex includes a small, red electric

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC;

light and a direct reference to the artist

the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC;

who inspired Chimes most greatly:

the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine

Marcel Duchamp. Chimes writes “eros

Arts, Philadelphia; and many others.

champ, du”, which suggests a passionate love—eros—for the great conceptual artist. Like Duchamp’s famous The Large Glass in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the box has an upper and lower register.

Diagrams of a shaft-like “trough” and other shapes suggest a realm of biomechanical interaction.

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SELMA HORTENSE BURKE American, 1900–1995

Burke’s bust is a study for a larger

Bust of Mary McLeod Bethune Date unknown Pot metal

Bethune-Cookman College and a lifelong

portrait of civil rights activist Mary McCleod Bethune, the founder of advocate for educational, political, and economic equality. The sculpture was a gift from the artist to noted historian Charles L. Blockson, who established the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift from the private collection of Charles L. Blockson, 2018

Collection at Temple University. Blockson, in turn, gave the sculpture to Woodmere.

Burke was born in North Carolina.

She came to Philadelphia to attend the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University College of Medicine) before moving to New York in the mid-1920s. Her commission of a relief bust of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 became the model for his likeness that appears on the United States dime. Her work is in the collections of the James A. Michener Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, among others collections. Burke moved to nearby Bucks County in 1949, and she maintained a lifelong connection to Philadelphia.

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VIOLET OAKLEY American, 1874–1961

The most famous woman in American

Medal awarded to John Lear in 1957 by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Water Color Club Designed 1907 Gold-plated bronze

glass designer, and illustrator. Her

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the family of John D. Lear, Jr., 2018

In 1900, Oakley had become a founding

art in her lifetime, Oakley was a muralist, painter, portraitist, stained many accomplishments include her three chambers of murals for the Pennsylvania State Capitol, which are considered masterpieces of the American Renaissance movement. Oakley’s murals for the Charlton Yarnall House in Philadelphia are on view in Woodmere’s Ethel M. Schnader Gallery.

member of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ Water Color Club, which was open to both men and women. In 1907, she designed a publicity poster for the Club’s exhibition with the tiny figure of Michelangelo painting the large-scale figure of the Prophet Jeremiah on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. The Club later asked Oakley to translate her image into a medal, which they award on an annual basis.

This particular medal was awarded to John B. Lear, Jr. who was an acknowledged master of watercolor. Like Oakley, Lear was also an illustrator and a resident of Chestnut Hill.

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HENRY WEBER MITCHELL American, 1915–1980

Mitchell made a mark on Philadelphia.

Italian Washer Women Date unknown Bas-relief in bronze with wood

Museum of Art, the winged bull that

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Harvey S. Shipley Miller in memory of Betty E. Miller, 2015

Italian Washer Women is a tour-de-force.

His bronze relief horses of the fountain on the East Terrace of the Philadelphia symbolizes Jefferson University, and other works are installed prominently across the city at museums and universities.

Mitchell creates a complex illusion of volumes in motion, working in shallow relief. The three women carry large rectangular blocks on their backs, presumably baskets of laundry; they step forward as if ascending or descending a staircase. The cube-like baskets should be heavy, but the women are well in control as they partake of their journey.

Mitchell, who had a degree in economics from Princeton University and was an executive of a motor company, came to Philadelphia in 1948 when he decided to switch careers and study art at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. After receiving his Master’s degree he lived in Italy from 1950 to 1952, where he studied sculpture on a Fulbright Fellowship.

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NATALIE CHARKOW HOLLANDER American

Charkow Hollander looks at the art of

(top) After Poussin c. 1980 Limestone

painting that shows an assemblage of

the past as inspiration for the art of the present. Here she interprets Nicolas Poussin’s Parnassus, a 17th-century allegorical figures who take inspiration from the muse of the arts—the font of all creativity—represented as a reclining female nude. Like Poussin’s painting, Charkow Hollander’s carved and cast

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Larry Day and Ruth Fine, 2017

sculptures are structured around the flow of the water that emanates from the nude. A variety of shapes

(bottom) After Poussin 1981 Bronze

and surface textures approximate the

Woodmere Art Museum: Museum purchase, 2014

Charkow Hollander was born and raised

painting’s stage-like space in the shallow three dimensions of relief, offering contemporary figurative narratives on a grand theme.

in Philadelphia and attended Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. After serving on the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Art for thirteen years from 1959 to 1972, she went on to teach in the MFA programs at the Yale School of Art, the University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, and New York Studio School.

Charkow Hollander lives and works in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and her work is included in museum collections across the country and around the world.

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DINA WIND American, born Israel, 1938–2014

Wind sometimes described her robust

Untitled c. 1980s Carbon steel

scrap metal together with found objects,

steel sculpture as “drawing in space.”

She created lyrical compositions with a fine-tuned sense of balance, welding household items, and machine parts. In 2016, after the artist’s death, Woodmere realized the artist’s ambition to enlarge her sculpture to a public scale with

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Leonard and Helen Evelev, 2016

Spring & Triangle, which is now installed on the Museum’s front lawn.

Wind came to the United States from Israel in 1963. She received her MA from the University of Pennsylvania and completed the Barnes Foundation program. She started her art training in studio painting classes with Sam Feinstein. Wind worked as a painter from the early 1970s through the mid1980s, before she found her passion for sculpture. She has exhibited throughout the United States in solo and group shows, particularly in New York and Philadelphia. Her work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the West Collection, and other private and public institutions across the globe.

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ITALIO SCANGA American, born Italy, 1932–2001

Bear with Accordion is made of found

Bear with Accordion 1985 Oil on wood, wire, and cloth

precarious. The painted surface unifies

objects, including a bear, accordions, tambourine, an oar, and a saw. Forms are balanced, but the equilibrium seems the many components and draws attention to their seemingly unrelated characteristics. Scanga’s provocative assemblage makes the viewer question the relationship between the disparate

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Italo Scanga Foundation, 2014

elements. Is there a narrative to be deciphered? Are the objects related in some way? The questions remain open.

Scanga was born in the Calabria region of Italy. He immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 14 years old. Living in Detroit, he worked on the General Motors assembly line and served in the United States Army before attending Michigan State University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1960 and a master’s degree in sculpture a year later. From 1967 until the late 1970s he taught at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. His work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.

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CYNTHIA CARLSON American, born 1942

Early in her career, Carlson made

Sixish 1975 Acrylic on wood

a sculptural presence. She is a pioneer in

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2011

movement transformed patterns for

paintings like Sixish, in which the heavy application of acrylic paint becomes like the Pattern and Decoration movement, which was a feminist art movement of the 1970s. Artists associated with the house decorating and aesthetic activities that were traditionally connected to women into aggressive and powerful installations, sculptures, and paintings.

Here, the playful textures of the body and frame of the object express bold energy.

Born in Chicago, Carlson obtained her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She taught at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) from 1967 to 1987.

She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including four National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a New York State Council on the Arts fellowship. Her work is represented in the collection of museums across the United States, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others.

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BRUCE POLLOCK American, born 1951

Through my work, I want to share the

Red Wing 1983 Fir plywood and enamel

and in the world around us, connecting

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2015

Red Wing is a phalanx of flat wooden

beauty and mystery I find in nature. The patterns I use in my work are within us us all together in the network of life. —Bruce Pollock

shapes that fan out like the feathers of a large wing. Balanced on a center axis, the elegant form seems to open and expand.

Pollock received his MFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, and he is the recipient of numerous grants and awards. His work is included in private, corporate, and public collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

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SAM MAITIN American, 1928–2004

posters, invitations, emblems, mosaics,

Untitled Face 1965 Multimedia collage on board

After graduating from Simon Gratz

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Helen Cunningham and Ted Newbold, 2017

political activist, and beloved teacher,

murals, and even building facades.

High School, Maitin won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts). A painter, printmaker, sculptor, muralist, graphic designer, Maitin headed the Visual Graphics Communication Laboratory at the

Maitin’s playful assemblage, made of

University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg

painted and folded canvas, wood, and

School for Communication from 1965

found objects, is an unusually gestural

to 1972 and served on the board of

and expressionistic work in the spectrum

Woodmere Art Museum from 1995 until

of the artist’s career. He is better known

2004. He received a number of awards,

for forms in two and three dimensions

including a 1968 Guggenheim Foundation

that are biomorphic, but hard-edged and

Fellowship. He created murals and

lively with vibrant color. Maitin’s untitled

other public art for the Children’s

sculpture is on view on Woodmere’s front

Hospital of Philadelphia, the University

lawn.

of Pennsylvania, Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry, the

Maitin’s involvements in the city’s cultural

Please Touch Museum, and Hahnemann

life were so pervasive that he was

University Hospital, among others.

sometimes referred to as Philadelphia’s

Maitin’s work is in museum collections in

“Mayor” of the arts. He served on

the United States and Europe, including

Woodmere’s board of trustees and

the National Gallery of Art in Washington

supported countless other organizations

DC, the Tate in London, the Philadelphia

across the city, volunteering time and

Museum of Art, and the Museum of

generously contributing designs for

Modern Art in New York.

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KENNETH GORDON American, 1929–1998

Gordon was a psychiatrist and

Owl Date unknown Patinated bronze

professional activity. The simplified,

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Margery P. Lee, 2018

fan out around the eyes and blend with

conservationist who pursued sculpture as a serious facet of his two areas of rounded shape of the sculpture, with its hollow eyes and tiny beak, convey a sense of the owl’s countenance. Feathers the course texture of the bronze surface.

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FRANCIS MCCARTHY American, 1923–2005

Born in Philadelphia, McCarthy took to

(top) Untitled (Vase) 1975 Ceramic

supportive friend and patron. McCarthy

the arts as a child. In the early 1940s he met Albert Barnes who became a studied at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts); the Barnes Foundation; the Grand Chaumiere, Paris; and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Margery P. Lee, 2018

Known for painted tiles, ceramic-topped tables, and glazed vessels, McCarthy

(bottom) Untitled (Vase) 1997 Ceramic

covered the surfaces of his objects with

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Margery P. Lee, 2018

there, The Dance. His lounging bathers

nude figures. In this, he was inspired by the Barnes Foundation’s collection. The large female figures swimming through a deep blue ocean are reminiscent of the figures in Henri Matisse’s great mural on the vase at far left might be inspired

by Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s depiction of nude bathers, many of which are also found in the collection the Barnes Foundation.

McCarthy taught at the Barnes Foundation, the Friends Neighborhood Guild, and at Fleisher Art Memorial for over five decades. His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the National Gallery, Washington, DC; the Barnes Foundation, and others.

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SEVERO ANTONELLI II GALLERY

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RUDOLF STAFFEL American, 1911–2002

Staffel’s vessels are designed to be

(top) Light Gatherer Bowl c. 1980 Unglazed porcelain washed with copper salts

and glows through thinner passages of

Woodmere Art Museum: Museum purchase, 2018

primary medium.

illuminated from above. They capture light, which shines through openings porcelain. An influential artist, Staffel inspired generations of his students at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art to consider ceramics on a par with painting and sculpture. He is among the first artists to have used raw porcelain as his

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Staffel began painting as a child. He attended the Art

(bottom) Light Gatherer Vessel c. 1985 Unglazed porcelain washed with copper salts

Institute of Chicago, but left after a year.

He traveled to Mexico, where he began working in ceramics.

Woodmere Art Museum: Museum purchase, 2018

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(top) Untitled 1980s Porcelain

Staffel became an instructor at Tyler School of Art in 1940. While there, he met Doris Blitman, who was a student; they married in 1942. The couple lived for a number of years in New York, where they both studied with Hans Hofmann.

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Doris Staffel, 2011

On returning to Philadelphia in 1948, he resumed his teaching at Tyler and, with Doris, purchased a home on Mermaid

(bottom) Vase Date unknown Unglazed porcelain washed with copper salts

Lane in Chestnut Hill. Staffel was awarded a Pew Fellowship in 1996. The following year, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a retrospective of his work.

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the June and Perry Ottenberg Estate, 2018

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Photograph by Joe Painter

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CHRISTOPHER SMITH American, born 1958

could banter with each other, not-so-

A View from the Box 2016 Glass fiber reinforced concrete

on I Love Lucy. So the dominant role

gently bickering back and forth, and in my mind they were like Fred and Ethel of television in creating experience all brought up family memories like that. The nudity of the figures is a metaphor for the depth of open, nude, raw relationships.

However, I don’t want viewers to have to

Woodmere Art Museum: Museum purchase with funds provided by Robert E. and Frances Coulborn Kohler, 2017

know anything about my grandparents to get something out of the sculpture. …

People have commented to me about the

Smith shows off his virtuoso talent in this

distance between the figures, as though

relief sculpture. Carved elements cast

they should be doing something sensual

shadows, creating an illusion of depth.

together, and yet there is a gulf and

Smith describes this work:

nothing is happening.

I wanted to work narratively. And I usually

Born in Detroit, Smith has built his

work in the total round, but I wanted to

career in Philadelphia. His work is in

work pictorially. I don’t paint and I really

private and public collections and has

don’t like drawing all that much, so I just

been exhibited extensively in the United

used relief as a fallback. I had two models

Kingdom and North America, including

come to my house and pose separately.

the Park Avenue Atrium in New York and

Those two chairs and that lamp are in

Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina.

my house. When I put it all together, I

He has taught at the Samuel S. Fleisher

just thought king and queen, and then

Art Memorial and was a recipient of the

went into some family history of my own.

Frank Gasparro Memorial Fellowship.

When I was a kid, my father’s parents

Another sculpture by Smith, Sankofa

would come to visit and they always sat

Kore, is on view on Woodmere’s grounds.

in two identical chairs in the house, and it became the Will and Estelle show. They 43

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DENNIS LEON American, born United Kingdom, 1933–1998

Leon’s untitled sculpture is a figurative

Untitled Date unknown Bronze and wood

fall forward and impale himself. The

narrative involving a bull and a matador.

The matador is elevated on a high plane; although he leans back, he may bull’s horns are formidable spikes, but the tragic animal’s body is pierced and contorted, as if already fallen in the conflict of man and beast.

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the June and Perry Ottenberg Estate, 2018

Born in London in 1933, Leon came to the United States in 1951 to study at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. He was an art critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1959–1962 and taught at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) from 1959–1970.

He moved to the California Bay Area in 1972 and taught at California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) until 1993. Throughout his career, Leon looked intently at Surrealist sculpture, particularly that of Alberto Giacometti. Though primarily a sculptor, favoring wood and bronze, Leon worked in a variety of media, including collage, drawing, and site-specific installation.

Toward the end of his life he became interested in natural forms, especially landscape.

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ANTHONY VISCO American, born 1948

Visco depicts Christ stepping out of the

The Fifteenth Station: The Resurrection 1983 Plaster

manifestation of the glorious excitement

tomb. His arms are extended outward as his drape blows in the wind, a of the event. Visco’s virtuoso command of relief carving techniques allows him to create the illusion of figures and objects as three-dimensional entities on a relatively flat plane.

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2015

Visco has received national and international acclaim as an artist of

The fifteen Stations of the Cross are the

liturgical and religious subjects. He is the

centerpieces of a Catholic devotional

founder and director of the Atelier for

practice that focuses on the events of the

the Sacred Arts in Philadelphia where

last day of Christ’s life. They are typically

he does commissioned works and offers

installed in a church where parishioners

professional services as a devotional

can move from station to station, reciting

art consultant. Upon graduation from

specific prayers and contemplating the

the Philadelphia College of Art (now

suffering and resurrection of Christ.

University of the Arts) he was the

Traditionally there were fourteen stations.

recipient of the Fullbright–Hayes Grant

During his papacy, which began in

to travel and study in Italy, where he

1978, Pope John Paul II encouraged

attended studios at the Accademia

Catholics to add a fifteenth Station, the

delle Belle Arti in Florence. He taught

Resurrection of Christ, which is now

at the University of the Arts and at the

included in many Catholic churches.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Since 2004 he has held the position of

This representation of the fifteenth

fine arts coordinator for the Shrine of

Station is a model for the plaster and

Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse,

wood relief sculpture installed in Old

Wisconsin.

Saint Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia.

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SUSAN LOWRY American, born 1953

Lowry creates painted assemblages of

Going and Return 1989 Oil on tin and carved basrelief

work, the artist explains, “Going and

tin and carved wood, often utilizing the printed patterns of found tin. Of this Return was created around the time I got married. At first glance, it references that life event. But more importantly, it is about compressed time and experience.

The landscape is …familiar and revised by

Woodmere Art Museum: Given in memory of Janet Fleisher, 2014

memory. The figure in the tree… serves as the narrator; torso turns in one direction, gaze directed in another. The central figures move tentatively in one direction with autonomy. They negotiate the landscape directly, intimately.”

Prior to studying painting at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), Lowry created small-scale metal sculpture using jewelers’ tools. Lowry obtained her bachelor of fine arts degree from the Philadelphia College of Art and a bachelor of arts from Hamilton College in New York. She is the head of the art department at Germantown Friends School and her work has been exhibited at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, both of Philadelphia.

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KATE KAMAN American, born 1981

Gia by Kaman was a site specific

Gia 2005 Cast concrete, copper, and gold leaf

in Bluebell, PA. The original location was

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Andrea M. Baldeck, M.D., 2017

Before it arrived at Woodmere, the

commission for Hawkhurst, the former home of Andrea Baldeck and Bill Hollis atop an old stone incinerator on the property. Kaman explains, “The idea was that this sculpture sort of grew out of its environment there.”

artist conserved the sculpture, restoring it to its original color and finish. It will eventually be installed outdoors and will likely “soften” and develop a natural patina as it is exposed to the elements over time. Of the sculpture’s relocation to Woodmere, Kaman remarked, “When it eventually gets placed outside on the grounds of Woodmere I hope it carries the same feeling: that the sculpture grew there.”

Kaman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her work is inspired by botany and organic life. She uses traditional sculptural techniques as well as cutting-edge computer simulations to make her works.

Since 2005, Kaman has created artworks for civic and corporate clients from Los Angeles to Boston, and Miami to Seattle.

Clients include universities, developers, and municipalities.

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TOSHIKO TAKAEZU American, 1922–2011

In 1958, Takaezu began throwing

Closed Form c. 1990s Stoneware

objects that could not serve a domestic

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Andrea M. Baldeck, M.D., 2017

a few inches to six feet tall. Her work is

earthenware pots in “closed form” (e.g. with closed tops), making ceramic functional use. Instead, they are works of art. Takaezu’s ceramics are organic and sensual, and they vary in size from just informed by the study of Zen Buddhism.

Takaezu taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art for nearly a decade and was then appointed at Princeton University, where she taught for twenty five years and helped develop the university’s visual arts program. Her work is in numerous public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the National Museum in Bangkok, Thailand. She has received many honors and awards, among them the Gold Medal of the American Craft Council and was named a Living Treasure of Hawaii.

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PHIL SIMKIN American, 1944–2013

During the 1984 Democratic Convention,

The Cable Knitted News 1984 Wool yarn

knitting machine, he fashioned large

Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Ann E. and Donald W. McPhail, 2013

blankets.”

Simkin launched a project he called the Cable Knitted News; using a commercial blankets with images and text from newspapers. He made garments and other functional objects with his “news

Simkin obtained his BFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and his MFA from Cornell University. He enacted site-specific commissioned installations across the country at venues in San Francisco, Saint Louis, Albany, Philadelphia, Boston, and Maryland. He became notorious for a performance he organized at a benefit event for the Print Center in 1975. He put works of art on a conveyor belt that fed a paper shredder.

If no one agreed to purchase the art before it reached the shredder, the work was destroyed.

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Woodmere Art Museum receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Š 2018 Woodmere Art Museum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

Photography by Rick Echelmeyer unless otherwise noted.

Support provided in part by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

Front cover: Red Wing, 1983, by Bruce Pollock (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2015).

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