LANGS DE WAL

Herbert Ferber

(American, 1906–1991)

Herbert Ferber

Black Gee, 1963

Biography

Timeline
Exhibitions

Timeline

1906: Born in New York City
1923: Graduated from Morris High School in the Bronx
1927 - 1930: Studies sculpture at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, New York
1927: Awarded Bachelor of Science Degree, Columbia University, New York.
1930: Expelled from the National Academy of Design for sculpting nonacademic, figurative work; exhibited landscape and figure etchings at National Arts Club; received Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation scholarship and met Ilya Bolotowsky and David McCosh
1936: Participates in First American Artists’ Congress. Joins the Artists’ Union.
1940: Founds Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, a splinter group from American Artists’ Congress (with Meyer Schapiro, Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, Ilya Bolotowsky, Bradley Walker Tomlin, David Smith, and others).
1941: Elected to executive board, Sculptors’ Guild (along with Chaim Gross, Robert Laurent and Hugo Robus).
1942: Awarded Fifth Purchase Prize, Artists for Victory exhibition, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1950: Joins “The Irascibles” in protest against juried painting exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Charter member, The Club.
1951: Commission: Façade sculpture, And the bush was not consumed . . . (commissioned with Adolph Gottlieb and Robert Motherwell) for B’nai Israel Synagogue, Millburn, New Jersey (Percival Goodman, architect).
1953: One of the American prize winners, International Sculpture Competition, “The Unknown Political Prisoner Monument,” Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
1954: Commission: light and candelabrum for Berlin Chapel, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts (Max Abramowitz, architect).
1957: Commission: two interior wall sculptures for Temple Anshe Chesed, Cleveland, Ohio (Percival Goodman, architect).
1965: Commission: sculpture for Commons Building, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
1966: Installs: Sculpture as Environment, in Ferber Lounge, Rutgers University (now installed at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University).
1968: Installs: Full Circle, at John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building, Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts (Walter Gropius, architect).
1969: Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
1977 - 1978: Commission: 18-foot outdoor sculpture for City of Ottumwa, Iowa
1979: Awarded R. S. Reynolds Memorial Award for aluminum sculpture
1991: Died in North Egremont, Massachusetts

Exhibitions

2007: Landscape: Form and Thought, Waqas Wajahat in association with Ingrao Gallery, New York, May 3–July 14. Catalogue with text by Christopher Riopelle.
2005: Organic New York 1941–1949m Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, September 10–November 5. Catalogue with text by Robert C. Morgan.
: New York School: Another View, Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, New York. Catalogue text by Ann Eden Gibson, et al.
: Surrealism USA, National Academy Museum, New York. Catalogue text by Isabelle Dervaux, Gerrit Lansing, Michael Duncan, Robert Lubar, Robert Hobbs, Scott Rothkopf.
: Grounded/Suspended: Herbert Ferber — Sculpture from the 1970s, Knoedler & Company. Catalogue text by Norman L. Kleeblatt, Susan and Elihu Rose Curator of Fine Arts, The Jewish Museum. (solo)
2004: My America: Art from the Jewish Museum Collection, 1900–1955, The Jewish Museum, New York.
: Herbert Ferber: Painting, Sculpture, and Drawing from the 1960s. Valerie Carberry Gallery, Chicago, Illinois. Catalogue text by Debra Bricker Balken. (solo)
2002: The Tiger’s Eye: The Art of a Magazine, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Catalogue text by Pamela Franks.
: Abstract Sculpture by American Artists 1920–1950, Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago, Illinois
2001 - 2003: Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age 1940–1960, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. Traveled to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Frist Center for the Visual Arts; Phoenix Art Museum. Brooke Kamin Rapaport, curator.
2001: Herbert Ferber: Calligraph Emblem of Motion, Knoedler & Company. Catalogue text by Stephen Polcari. (solo)
2000: Herbert Ferber: Paintings, Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona. Catalogue text excerpted from an interview with Herbert Ferber by Irving Sandler. (solo)
: The American Century: Art & Culture 1900–2000; Part II, 1950–2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Catalogue text by Lisa Phillips.
1999: The American Century: Art & Culture 1900–2000; Part I, 1900–1950, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Catalogue text by Barbara Haskell.
1998: Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York (solo)
1988: Studio d’Arte Zanussi, Milan, Italy (solo)
1984: The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts (solo)
1981: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas [traveled] (solo)
1978: Knoedler & Company, New York (solo)
1972: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Sculpture Garden, New York (solo)
: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Sculpture Garden, New York (solo)
1970: Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey (solo)
1964: Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington (solo)
1962: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (solo)
1961: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (solo)
1958: Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont (solo)
1955: Samuel Kootz Gallery, New York (solo)
1947: Betty Parsons Gallery, New York (solo)
1937: Midtown Galleries, New York, NY (first one-man sculpture exhibition)
: SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
The Bennington College Museum, Vermont
The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
The Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Albany, New York
Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
The Jewish Museum, New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Art, Carnegie, Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York
The Newark Museum, New Jersey
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California
The Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York
Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey
The Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri
Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey