Irving Kriesberg


Irving Kriesberg was an American painter, sculptor, educator, author, and filmmaker, whose work combined elements of Abstract Expressionism with representational human, animal, and humanoid forms. Because Kriesberg blended formalist elements with figurative forms he is often considered to be a Figurative Expressionist.

Biography

Irving Kriesberg was born March 13, 1919, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Bessie and Max Kriesberg. Kriesberg had three brothers, Lee, Martin, and Louis.
As a child, Kriesberg filled sketchbooks with images of animals inspired by visits to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History with his brother Martin. He graduated from Von Steuben High School in 1937 and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received his BFA in 1941. His teachers at the School of the Art Institute included the Russian-American avant-garde painter, Boris Anisfeld.
Shortly after graduation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Kriesberg traveled to Mexico City, where he lived and worked from 1941 until 1944. He studied graphic arts at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas, Mexico City and exhibited with Taller de Gráfica Popular. In 1945, Kriesberg moved to New York City and got a job animating signs in Times Square with Artkraft Strauss.
Kriesberg befriended the Cubist sculptor, Jacques Lipchitz, who introduced Kriesberg's work to Curt Valentin. Valentin, a German-Jewish art dealer, ran an eponymous art gallery on 32 east 57th Street in Manhattan, which was known for exhibiting the work of established modern artists including Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Max Beckmann, and Henry Moore. Valentin exhibited Kriesberg's work as part of a group exhibition in 1953 alongside fellow artists, Reg Butler, Bruno Cassina, Jan Cox, and Alton Pickens. Kriesberg had his first solo exhibition at the Curt Valentin Gallery in 1955. Lipchitz wrote the introductory text for the exhibition catalogue.
Kriesberg had his first major museum show in 1952, when several of his paintings were selected by Dorothy Miller, curator of the Museum of Modern Art, for the landmark group exhibition, 15 Americans.''15 Americans also included Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Williams Baziotes, and other seminal American modern artists. In 1961, Kriesberg had a solo exhibition at the Jewish Museum. The exhibition was a 15 year career retrospective for Kriesberg, featuring works from 1945 through 1960. It also marked the debut screening of Kriesberg's 1954 animated film, Pastoral.'' The show at the Jewish Museum ran concurrent with a solo exhibition at Graham Gallery. Allan Kaprow wrote the essay for the Graham Gallery show catalogue, stating that "Irving Kriesberg has pushed the boundaries of his art farther than most artists. He has increased the possibilities for us all."
In 1965, Kriesberg received a Fulbright Fellowship to travel to India. He traveled the countryside and made a significant body of paintings on canvas and paper in Simla. In 1966, Kriesberg presented this work in a 1966 solo exhibition at the Kumar Gallery in New Delhi.
Kriesberg taught at several academic institutions including: Parsons School of Design, New York City, Pratt Institute, NY, Yale University, City University of New York, State University, NY, and Columbia University.

Artwork

In addition to painting, printmaking and, sculpture, Kriesberg was involved with cinematography. He created two avant-garde animations Pastoral and Out of Into. He received his M.A. in film from New York University in 1972.
Out of Into premiered at the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum during the exhibition 10 Independents. The exhibition was the museum's first artist initiated and organized exhibition. Kriesberg was an exhibiting artist, as well as the curator of the exhibition which also featured, Romare Bearden, Robert Beauchamp, Mary Frank, Red Grooms, Lester Johnson, Joseph Kurhajec, Maryan, Peter Schumann, and H.C. Westermann.
Kriesberg also created several works of public art, including a banner for the 1989 Passover Peace Coalition rally and a 40-foot banner called Peace Dove, which was an integral visual element of the June 12th Rally for nuclear disarmament in 1982.

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

Awards

Kriesberg received a Ford Foundation grant in 1965, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Memorial Award in 1976, a Fulbright Fellowship from 1965-1966, a National Endowment for the Arts Award in 1981, and a Lee Krasner Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation for a lifetime of achievement in 2002.
In 1992, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1994.

Museum collections

Kriesberg's paintings are held in the permanent collection of over 74 American art museums including, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, the National Gallery, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Birmingham Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Dayton Art Institute, the Allentown Art Museum, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Rose Art Museum, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Scottsdale MoCA, the Longview Museum of Fine Arts and the Crocker Art Museum.

Books written by Irving Kriesberg

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