Irving Petlin
Encyclopedia
Irving Petlin is an American
artist and painter renowned for his mastery of the pastel
medium and collaborations with other artists (including Mark di Suvero
and Leon Golub
) and for his work in the "series form" in which he uses the raw material of pastel, oil paint and unprimed linen, and finds inspiration in the work of writers and poets including Primo Levi
, Bruno Schulz
, Paul Celan
, Michael Palmer
and Edmond Jabès
.
Petlin attended the Art Institute of Chicago
from 1953-1956 where he received his BFA
during the height of the Chicago Imagist
movement. At a critical juncture Petlin attended Yale
to study under Josef Albers
, subsequently earning his MFA
in 1960. Since the 1960s, Petlin has been a leader in artists' political activism when he became one of the founding members of "Artists and Writers Against the War in Vietnam", and then helped to create the Peace Tower
in 1966, and the iconic anti-Vietnam War poster "And babies
" in 1969. Petlin continued his militant
interventions after the 1960s through such activities as his participation in the "Artists' Call Against the U.S. Intervention in Central America".
Engaging in multiple
discourse
s – political, philosophical, psychological – Irving Petlin examines issues such as American involvement in war, the Shoah
, allegories of childhood
fable
s, and the visual meaning of place. The artist himself has described this approach as an “interrogation of memory” that constantly leads him to further exploration. According to Petlin, artists have a particular social duty to explore themes of injustice. One such work, The Entry of Christ into Washington (After Ensor), is a reflection on post-9/11
American politics, the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan
.
Petlin has taught at Dartmouth College
, UCLA, the University of Haifa
, as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago
. He lives and works in NYC, Martha’s Vineyard, and Paris
.
Others on Petlin, including reviews & perspectives
Petlin in his own words
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist and painter renowned for his mastery of the pastel
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
medium and collaborations with other artists (including Mark di Suvero
Mark di Suvero
Marco Polo "Mark" di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born Marco Polo Levi in Shanghai, China in 1933 to Italian expatriates. He immigrated to San Francisco, California in 1942 with his family. From 1953 to 1957, he attended the University of California, Berkeley to study...
and Leon Golub
Leon Golub
Leon Golub was an American painter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he also studied, receiving his BA at the University of Chicago in 1942, his BFA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949 and 1950, respectively.He was married to and collaborated with the artist Nancy Spero...
) and for his work in the "series form" in which he uses the raw material of pastel, oil paint and unprimed linen, and finds inspiration in the work of writers and poets including Primo Levi
Primo Levi
Primo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...
, Bruno Schulz
Bruno Schulz
Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher born to Jewish parents, and regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. Schulz was born in Drohobycz, in the province of Galicia then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and spent...
, Paul Celan
Paul Celan
Paul Celan was a poet and translator...
, Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer is an American poet and translator. He attended Harvard University where he earned a BA in French and a MA in Comparative Literature. He has worked extensively with Contemporary dance for over thirty years and has collaborated with many composers and visual artists...
and Edmond Jabès
Edmond Jabes
----Edmond Jabès was a Jewish writer and poet, and one of the best known literary figures to write in French after World War II.- Life :...
.
Petlin attended the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
from 1953-1956 where he received his BFA
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
during the height of the Chicago Imagist
Chicago Imagists
The Chicago Imagists is the name of a group of representational artists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center in the late 1960s. Their work was known for grotesquerie, surrealism and complete uninvolvement with New York art world trends...
movement. At a critical juncture Petlin attended Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
to study under Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, subsequently earning his MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in 1960. Since the 1960s, Petlin has been a leader in artists' political activism when he became one of the founding members of "Artists and Writers Against the War in Vietnam", and then helped to create the Peace Tower
Peace Tower (art)
Peace Tower is an art installation by Mark di Suvero and others. It was first conceived and constructed in 1966 as The Artists' Tower of Protest in Los Angeles, California to protest the Vietnam War...
in 1966, and the iconic anti-Vietnam War poster "And babies
And babies
And babies is an iconic anti-Vietnam War poster. It is a famous example of "propaganda art" from the Vietnam conflict that uses the now infamous color photograph of the My Lai Massacre taken by U.S. combat photographer Ronald L. Haeberle in March 1968...
" in 1969. Petlin continued his militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
interventions after the 1960s through such activities as his participation in the "Artists' Call Against the U.S. Intervention in Central America".
Engaging in multiple
Multiplicity (philosophy)
Multiplicity is a philosophical concept that Edmund Husserl and Henri Bergson developed by analogy with Riemann's description of the mathematical concept. It forms an important part of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, particularly in his collaboration with Félix Guattari, Capitalism and...
discourse
Discourse
Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...
s – political, philosophical, psychological – Irving Petlin examines issues such as American involvement in war, the Shoah
Shoah
Shoah may refer to:*The Holocaust*Shoah , documentary directed by Claude Lanzmann * A Shoah Foundation...
, allegories of childhood
Childhood
Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
s, and the visual meaning of place. The artist himself has described this approach as an “interrogation of memory” that constantly leads him to further exploration. According to Petlin, artists have a particular social duty to explore themes of injustice. One such work, The Entry of Christ into Washington (After Ensor), is a reflection on post-9/11
Post-9/11
Post-9/11 is a term used to describe state of living in the United States or other parts of the world after the September 11 attacks, in reference to the many changes that have occurred due to the attacks...
American politics, the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
.
Petlin has taught at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, UCLA, the University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
, as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. He lives and works in NYC, Martha’s Vineyard, and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Selected exhibitions
- 2010 Irving Petlin: Major Paintings, 1979-2009. Kent Gallery, New York
- 2007 Orpheus, Pastels. Galerie Ditesheim, FIAC, Paris
- 2006 Este Mundo. Kent Gallery, New York
- 2002 Irving Petlin. Galerie Krugier-Ditesheim Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
- 2001 Out of the Shadows. School of the Museum of Fine ArtMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonThe Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
, Boston - 1998 A Tribute to Meyer SchapiroMeyer SchapiroMeyer Schapiro was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for forging new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art...
. Jan Krugier Gallery, New York - 1997 Le Monde D’Edmond Jabes, Pastels. Krugier-Ditesheim Art Contemporain, Geneva
- 1996 Paris is White. Kent Gallery, New York
- 1995 Irving Petlin: 1955-1995, Disegni nacosti. Studio d’ Arte Recalcati, Turin, Italy
- 1993 Swiat Brunona Shulza. Galerie Kordegarda, Varsovie, Poland
- 1992 Memories Drawn from Bruno Schulz and Others. Kent Gallery, New York
- 1990 Israel in Egypt. Kent Fine Art, New York
- 1990 The Periodic Table. Gallery 400Gallery 400Gallery 400 is a not-for-profit arts exhibition space within the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was founded in 1983 to exhibit and support art, design and architecture. Over its history Gallery 400 has presented many exhibitions, lectures, and...
, University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, IL - 1990 Chagall to Kitaj: Jewish Experience in 20th Century Art. Barbican Art Gallery London, England
- 1989 A Different War: Vietnam in Art. Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA. Curated by Lucy Lippard.
- 1988 Pastels 1961-1987. Kent Fine Art, New York, NY
- 1987 Weisswald. Kent Fine Art, New York
- 1982 Irving Petlin: Recent Paintings and Pastels. Marlborough Fine Art, London, UK
- 1982 The Venice Biennale, Italian Pavilion, Venice, Italy
- 1981 Drawings from the Studio, 1972-1981. University of California at Santa Cruz
- 1980 Irving Petlin, Pastels. Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris
- 1978 Rubbings (Large Paintings, Small Pastels). Neuberger Museum-SUNY, Purchase, NY & Arts Club of ChicagoArts Club of ChicagoArts Club of Chicago is a private club located in the Near North Side community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States, a block east of the Magnificent Mile, that exhibits international contemporary art. It was founded in 1916, inspired by the success of the Art Institute of...
, Chicago, Il - 1977 Galleria Bergamini, Milan, Italy
- 1974 DocumentaDocumentadocumenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
, Torino, Italy - 1973 Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum New York, NY
- 1972 Galleria Bergamini, Milan, Italy
- 1968 Irving Petlin: Opere recent. Galleria Il Fante Di Spade, Rome, Italy
- 1967 Odyssia Gallery, New York
- 1966 Rolf Nelson Gallery, Los Angeles
- 1965 Petlin Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
- 1964 American Show, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
- 1963 Petlin: Peintures 1962-1963. Galerie du Dragon, Paris, France
- 1961 Paris Biennal, American Section. Paris, France
- 1960 Petlin, Galerie du Dragon, Paris, France
- 1958 Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 1956 Cliffdweller Gallery, Chicago, IL
- 1954 Exhibition Momentum. Chicago, IL
- 1953-56 Art Institute, Chicago, IL
External links
Petlin sites and artist pages- Irving Petlin: A Retrospective Artist Page at Jan Krugier Gallery website
- Kent Gallery Artist Page
- Irving Petlin on artnet
- Vermont Studio Center: Artist page
Others on Petlin, including reviews & perspectives
- Irving Petlin, Este Mundo by Carrie Moyer at The Brooklyn RailThe Brooklyn RailThe Brooklyn Rail is a political, artistic and literary magazine based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Coverage includes political andliterary essays, art criticism, interviews, original fiction and poetry, and reviews....
- from Nomadics Blog: 3 Irving Petlin Shows in New York poet Pierre JorisPierre JorisPierre Joris, born in Strasbourg, France in 1946 and raised in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg, is a poet and translator. He left Luxembourg at nineteen and since then has lived in the US, Great Britain, North Africa and France...
provides links and commentary on his blog to the 3 major Petlin shows that occurred in New York City in early 2010 - Press: Three essays on Petlin link provides access to free PDF online versions of seminal Petlin retrospectives by Edward Fry (from the Wiesswald exhibition catalogue), Paul Cummings ("The Precincts of Light"), and Michael Palmer ("A Bonfire in the Starry Night")
- The Unbearable Yet Obligatory, And other shows of modern and contemporary works
- Studio Matters, Arts & Commentary: Irving Petlin’s paintings; Bernardo Siciliano’s girlie pix; a Leonardo da Vinci for Times Square by Maureen Mullarkey
Petlin in his own words
- PDF: Kent Gallery Exhibition Catalogue of Major Paintings, 1979-2009 link here and scroll down for free PDF online publication of 88 pages that documented in full those works included in the Kent Gallery exhibition from 2010, including Petlin's own commentaries and complete biographical information on the artist
- 1000 words: Peace Tower; Irving Petlin, Mark di Suvero, and Rirkrit Tiravanija revisit The Artists' Tower of Protest, 1966 includes extensive transcript of Petlin in his own words
- YouTube: Irving Petlin at Kent 2010 Petlin discusses some of his work as he walks around the Kent Gallery in 2010
- In Conversation: Irving Petlin with John Yau renowned poet/art critic & Art Editor for The Brooklyn Rail John YauJohn YauJohn Yau is an American poet and critic who lives in New York City. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1978...
interviews Petlin in 2006