Add this copy of Isaac Witkin to cart. $45.00, new condition, Sold by Hennessey + Ingalls rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Hudson Hills Press.
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New. This beautiful monograph explores the career of one of the most original sculptors now working in the modernist tradition. Isaac Witkin, born in South Africa, studied in London, then worked as an assistant to Henry Moore. A U.S. resident since 1965, he has taught at Bennington and Middlebury colleges and the Parsons School of Design. His early work used unexpected materials in sculptures that married form and color in unprecedented ways. Once in the U.S., he explored abstract volume and color in steel, later shifting to bronze, inventing a method of constructing with directly poured organic elements. This beautiful monograph explores the career of one of the most original sculptors now working in the modernist tradition.
Add this copy of Isaac Witkin to cart. $81.94, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Hudson Hills.
Add this copy of Isaac Witkin to cart. $111.98, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Hudson Hills.
This eponymous out-of-print 1998 book on sculptor Isaac Witkin (b. 1936-d. 2006) by art critic Karen Wilkin is, surprisingly, the only monograph out there on one of the most original and masterful - although heretofore under-recognized - sculptors of the modernist tradition. Indeed, this ten year old monograph is a glaring reminder that an updated and more comprehensive book/catalogue raisonne of this important sculptor is overdue. In 2006, Neil Marshall, art critic and author of scholarly works on Jules Olitski and others, wrote this tribute: "In a succession of masterworks, Witkin found that fusion of tradition and the new that makes for major art. That his rivals took pains to attack it was the highest compliment. Its emotive force a profound threat to their own lifeless creations. There is a glut of such stuff, and an even greater glut of people who call themselves artists...But in truth there are very few genuine artists. Isaac Witkin was one of them." Karen Wilkin's eloquent prose in ISAAC WITKIN shows appreciation for the aesthetic beauty and quality this sculptor's work. The author also places Witkin's accomplishments alongside those of his mentors and heroes like Moore, Smith, Rodin, Gonzales and Picasso. In addition, Ms. Wilkin does well documenting how Witkin, in his twenties, was a protagonist of the "New Generation" of British sculptors who shook up the art world in the 1960's. However, it is nonetheless perplexing that ISAAC WITKIN places so little emphasis on the sculptor's experiences in the U.S. pouring metal at the Johnson Atelier (founded by J. Seward Johnson) in the late 1970's, which helped enable Witkin to develop his own unique sculptural language. Indeed, Isaac Witkin's technique of pouring molten metal onto beds of sand - essentially "drawing" with bronze-- which he invented at the Johnson Atelier, helped secure his legacy as one of the greatest sculptural innovators of the twentieth century, a modernist who dared to use classical materials such as bronze in ways that had never been done before. That story, along with higher quality, large glossy color reproductions of Witkin's entire oeuvre, including the magnificent poured bronze and stone works of his final years, will have to wait for future books and catalogues on this artist. In the meantime, Karen Wilkin's rare gem ISAAC WITKIN is a must-read for artists, students, scholars, collectors -- and anyone else interested in the very best of twentieth century sculpture.
