On view at Childs Gallery May 3 to August 19, 2018, Sculptors on Paper offers a glimpse at drawings and prints by artists famously known for their work in sculpture. Featuring both preparatory and fully realized artwork, the exhibition allows viewers to consider the relation between the artists’ interpretation of the two- and three-dimensional.

Artwork on view includes gouaches by Alexander Calder, drawings by Donald De Lue and Dudley Vaill Talcott, and prints by Louise Nevelson, Henry Moore, and Victor Vasarley, among others. Each artist’s translation of idea to paper is unique, and contextualizing these works within a larger artistic oeuvre invites a compelling examination on the interplay between different media. Calder’s whimsical shapes and bold colors easily and charmingly transcribe onto a flat surface. De Lue’s resolute figures are instantly recognizable in preparatory drawings for major sculptural commissions. Nevelson’s monochromatic compartmentalization brings an introspective depth to her prints. Analyzing these artists and their works through the lens of a different medium yields surprisingly informative new perspectives of both the maker and the object.

Few places in the world have sparked the collective artistic consciousness as has Venice. From its earliest moments as a critical hub of trade between the East and West, to its artistic fourishing in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, to its instrumental role in Contemporary Art, the ethereal beauty of Venice continues to inspire and delight the eye.

La Serenissima: Views of Venice will feature paintings, prints, and photography of Venice from the 19th Century to today. Many of these works refect the enduring infuence of one of Venice’s most famous portrayers, James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Whistler’s atmospheric interpretations capture “the essence of the crumbling city: its texture, its light, its distinctive enclosed streets and piazze, and its unique ‘foating’ quality.” Venice—known as La Serenissima, The Most Serene—continues to fascinate and inspire generations of artists.

Childs Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Henry Botkin: From Realism to Abstraction, on view from November 16, 2017 to January 7, 2018. Henry Botkin (1896-1983) was a mid-century American modernist equally known as a painter, a collage artist, and for his work as a proponent of abstract art. Botkin’s oeuvre can be defined by three distinct styles—School of Paris Modernism, Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism. The exhibition leads the viewer through each phase of Botkin’s work from realism to abstraction.

Botkin studied at the Massachusetts College of Art before moving to New York City, where he worked as an illustrator for publications such as Harper’s. By the 1920s Botkin had moved to Paris, establishing a studio with the assistance of his cousins George and Ira Gershwin. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, his work was heavily influenced by artists of the School of Paris, including Jules Pascin,

Marc Chagall, and Chaim Soutine. Botkin later returned to New York and in the late 1930s began to develop a new Cubist approach to his painting.

By the late 1940s, Botkin was fully immersed in the Abstract Expressionist movement then taking hold of the New York art scene. His interest in collage dominated his work for the remainder of his life.

While each of the three styles is considered distinct, music can be seen as the common thread throughout his artistic output. In the 1930s, the impact of Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” is readily apparent in works such as Woman in Boat, Folly Island. In the 1940s, musicians holding mandolins appear, and in the 1950s, works with titles such as Rhythm No. 3, and Hidden Melody are indicators of the artist’s love of music.

Botkin’s work can be found in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson MS, the Hilliard University Art Museum, Lafayette LA, and the Rose Art Gallery, Waltham MA.

Childs Gallery is pleased to present The Modern Cut: Woodcuts and Linocuts since 1900, on view November 2 – December 24, 2017. From the immediacy of German Expressionist woodcuts, to the streamlined geometry of Grosvenor School linocuts, this exhibition showcases the relief printmaking techniques of woodcut and linocut in the 20th and 21st centuries. The exhibition includes examples by Milton Avery, Leonard Beaumont, Letterio Calapai, Susan Crile, Werner Drewes, Paul Endres, Jr., Max Pechstein, David Siqueiros, and Lill Tschudi.

Childs Gallery is proud to present Robert S. Neuman: Sixty Years in Paint, an exhibition celebrating the prolific career of American artist Robert S. Neuman (1926-2015). Over the course of more than six decades, Neuman – a second-generation Abstract Expressionist – bridged the gap between gestural and geometric abstraction. His richly pigmented paintings fuse form, content, and vibrant color to explore the visual language of landscape, voyage, and globalization.

Robert S. Neuman: Sixty Years in Paint is on view at Childs Gallery from September 27 through November 12, 2017. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, September 27^th from 6 pm to 8 pm.

Childs Gallery’s show coincides with a major retrospective exhibition of Neuman’s work, Impulse and Discipline: 60 Years of Painting by Robert S. Neuman, 1950 – 2010, at Keene State College’s Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, on view from September 22 through December 6, 2017.

A prolific painter, Neuman’s career spanned more than six decades. From 1947 to 1953 Neuman was active in the San Francisco Bay Area, completing his Master of Fine Arts degree at the California College of the Arts in 1951 and holding faculty appointments at the San Francisco College of Fine Arts and the California College of Arts and Crafts. While in California, he exhibited alongside a number of established and emerging West Coast painters, including Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Elmer Bischoff, Wayne Thiebaud, and Clyfford Still. The influence of the Bay Area School is evident in Neuman’s use of broad surface treatments, calligraphic drawings, energized expression, and a full color palette.

In 1953, Neuman was awarded a Fulbright Grant for painting, which brought him to Stuttgart, Germany to study with the abstract artist Willi Baumeister. In 1956, he received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship which allowed him to spend a year in Barcelona, Spain. In between these prestigious awards, Neuman left California and settled on the East Coast, where he went on to teach at SUNY New Paltz, NY, Massachusetts College of Art, MA, Brown University, RI, Harvard University, MA, and Keene State College, NH. As a result of his travels, Neuman’s oeuvre illustrates a remarkable combination of influences, imbuing his paintings with a dramatic universality.

Neuman has worked in series throughout his career, each one representing a response to a different symbol, place, or idea, and each with its own distinct visual language. Neuman's first major series was The Black Paintings, catalyzed by his experience studying in post-war Germany as a Fulbright Fellow in 1953. His Barcelona Series, begun in 1956 during his time studying in Barcelona as a Guggenheim Fellow, reflects the city’s culture with bright colors and broad, gestural brush strokes. In the 1960s, Neuman’s art evolved into geometric abstraction, often verging on symbolism. The Pedazos del Mundo, begun in 1961, use the recurring visual language of concentric circles to symbolize the many fragmentations of our world. Space Signs, begun in 1966, continues to use the symbol of the circle to create bright, crowded geometric landscapes. In 1980, Neuman began the Lame Deer Series, vivid chromatic representations of the Western American landscape, inspired by a visit to a Native American reservation near Lame Deer, Montana. Other series include Abstract Figures, Abstract Landscapes, Alhambra, Diamond Canvases, Mirage, Rose Paintings, Stacks and Piles, Voyage, and his Ship to Paradise prints.

Neuman’s work is in numerous public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Boston Public Library; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; and many others.

EXHIBITION:

The Nude in Print

July 6 – August 20, 2017

BOSTON, MA – From the delicate curves of Anders Zorn’s nudes to the hard-edged angles of Milton Avery’s modernist figures, The Nude in Print, on view July 6 through August 20, 2017, is an exhibition focused on printmaking of the 20th and early 21st century featuring the nude. Both American and European artists are represented, working in a variety of techniques, including etching, mezzotint, wood engraving, and lithography.

The nude has been a significant subject in art from Antiquity through present day. Depictions range from classical ideal to modernist abstraction, from chaste academic study to more provocative portrayals. The 20th century saw the nude’s gradual liberation from classical and academic constraints as artists began to challenge idealized representations. Modern approaches to the nude encompass an exciting range of styles, techniques, and applications.

On display in Childs Gallery’s recently re-opened Print Room, The Nude in Print presents a broad range of interpretations of the nude in a variety of print media. Artists represented include Milton Avery, Arthur B. Davies, Childe Hassam, Rockwell Kent, Paul Landacre, Boris Lovet-Lorski, Man Ray, John Sloan, Jacques Villon, and Anders Zorn, among many others.

About Childs Gallery: Established in 1937 on Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay, Childs Gallery holds one of the largest inventories of oil paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints and sculpture in the United States. We actively service collectors, artists, estates and corporate clients throughout the country in the buying and selling of fine art, and have placed exceptional works in major museums nationwide. Our extensive holdings – including prints and drawings that range from Old Masters to 20th century notables to 21st century contemporaries, along with superb paintings and sculpture from the past 200 years – are particularly appealing to the eclectic tastes of today’s art lovers, as it’s the collector’s eye, not the historic period or medium, that makes for a cohesive and personally satisfying collection.

For high-res images and all press inquiries, please contact:

info@chidsgallery.com

169 Newbury Street