'De Rerum Natura' — Mid-century American Surrealism

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Lawrence Kupferman
'De Rerum Natura' — Mid-century American Surrealism
1954

About the Item

Lawrence Kupferman, 'De Rerum Natura', ink and encaustic, 1954. Signed 'Kupferman' in ink, lower right sheet edge. Signed and titled (twice) in ink, verso, and annotated '#ED:742.C' (the artist’s inventory number) 'March 1954' and 'Lucretius', in the artist’s hand. Ink and encaustic on heavy cream wove watercolor paper, with fresh colors, the image extending to the sheet edge. Slight toning to the sheet verso, otherwise in very good condition. Image size/sheet size 25 3/8 x 19 1/4 inches (645 x 489 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THIS WORK Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, dates back to ancient Greece. Traditionally colored pigments were added to heated beeswax, the oldest known pigment binder, to create the paint medium. The encaustic medium, similar in appearance to oil painting, can be applied to any number of surfaces from paper to stone. It allows for a great variety of texture and has the advantage of not yellowing, of weathering well, and of being unaffected by moisture. De Rerum Natura (usually translated as On the Nature of Things) is a philosophical epic poem written by the Roman poet Lucretius in Latin around 55 BCE. The poem was lost during the Middle Ages, rediscovered in 1417, and first printed in 1473. Its earliest published translation into any language (French) did not occur until 1650; in English — although earlier partial or unpublished translations exist — the first complete translation to be published was that of Thomas Creech, in heroic couplets, in 1682. A pioneering figure in the history of philosophical poetry, Lucretius has come to be our primary source of information on Epicurean physics, the official topic of his poem. Among numerous other Epicurean doctrines, the atomic ‘swerve’ is known to us mainly from Lucretius’ account of it. His defense of the Epicurean system is deftly and passionately argued and is particularly admired for its eloquent critique of the fear of death in book 3. Lucretius' work would have had a special resonance with Kupferman, who in his expressionist explorations was concerned with the mystery and essence of life itself. ABOUT THE ARTIST Lawrence Kupferman (1909 - 1982) was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Boston Latin School and took part in the high school art program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the late 1920s, he studied drawing under Philip Leslie Hale at the Museum School—an experience he called 'stultifying and repressive'. In 1932 he transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art, where he first met his wife, the artist Ruth Cobb. He returned briefly to the Museum School in 1946 to study with the influential expressionist German-American painter Karl Zerbe where he was first introduced to the encaustic medium. Kupferman held various jobs while pursuing his artistic career, including two years as a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During the 1930s he worked as a drypoint etcher for the Federal Art Project, creating architectural drawings in a formally realistic style—these works are held in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1940s he began incorporating more expressionistic forms into his paintings as he became progressively more concerned with abstraction. In 1946 he began spending summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he met and was influenced by Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and other abstract painters. At about the same time he began exhibiting his work at the Boris Mirski Gallery in Boston. In 1948, Kupferman was at the center of a controversy involving hundreds of Boston-area artists. In February of that year, the Boston Institute of Modern Art issued a manifesto titled 'Modern Art and the American Public' decrying 'the excesses of modern art,' and announced that it was changing its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The poorly conceived statement, intended to distinguish Boston's art scene from that of New York, was widely perceived as an attack on modernism. In protest, Boston artists such as Karl Zerbe, Jack Levine, and David Aronson formed the 'Modern Artists Group' and organized a mass meeting. On March 21, 300 artists, students, and other supporters met at the Old South Meeting House and demanded that the ICA retract its statement. Kupferman chaired the meeting and read this statement to the press: “The recent manifesto of the Institute is a fatuous declaration which misinforms and misleads the public concerning the integrity and intention of the modern artist. By arrogating to itself the privilege of telling the artists what art should be, the Institute runs counter to the original purposes of this organization whose function was to encourage and to assimilate contemporary innovation.” The other speakers were Karl Knaths, H. W. Janson, Zerbe, Levine, and Aronson. In May 1950, the ICA issued a joint statement with the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art affirming the value of modern and abstract art. Kupferman became a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and went on to chair its Painting Department, where he was known for introducing innovative practices and techniques. In his mature later work, he developed a unique expressionist vernacular of delicately articulated marine-like surrealist forms. About his 1948 painting, Evening Tide, he said, 'This might be at the deepest bottom of an ocean, where light comes only from microscopic life forms, or it could be out, far beyond Venus, where things collect and begin again...Life is mysterious. I find relevance in the abstract, for in it is the womb of existence." Kupferman’s work is included in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Fogg Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Kupferman's papers on file with the Archives of American Art include an unpublished historical novel, Beggar's Bread, which chronicles the Boston art scene of the 1930s.

Creator:
Lawrence Kupferman (1909-1982, American)
Creation Year:
1954
Dimensions:
Height: 25.38 in (64.47 cm)Width: 19.25 in (48.9 cm)
Medium:
Ink,Encaustic
Movement & Style:
Abstract Expressionist
Period:
1950-1959
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Myrtle Beach, SC
Reference Number:
Seller: 988401stDibs: LU53238896652