These two featured works on paper, Neshoba and Angry Dog, respond to one of many dark moments during the Civil Rights era.
Read moreFrom the Archive: Angry Dogs Snarling at Social Injustice
From the Archive: June 12th Rally & The Dove of Peace
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.
Read moreFrom the Archive: 1955 Curt Valentin Solo Exhibition
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.
Read moreFrom the Archive: Irving Kriesberg's New York Times Obituary
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.
From the Archive: The Ezekiel Panels at Beth Emet Synagogue
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.
Read moreFrom the Archive: Prometheus in Poetry
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.
Read moreFrom the Archive: Allan Kaprow on Kriesberg (Art International / January 1964)
From the Archive: On this centennial year of the birth of Irving Kriesberg, the estate looks into its archive offering up a important texts and moments in the life and art of the artist. Here is a critical essay by Allan Kaprow on nature in the art of Kriesberg.
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