Harold Wortsman

"OWL ROCK", print, hand-tooled aluminum intaglio, abstract contemporary, etching

2013

PROPOSITION is a hand-tooled aluminum intaglio print on Rives BFK 250g paper with deckle edge. It is a framed monotype in white matte wood with spacers under glass to maintain the de...

Midnight Blue, a ceramic relief sculpture of high-fired porcelain pigmented with oxides, paint and epoxy, is a recent work by New York artist Harold Wortsman. This sculpture is ready to be mounted to the wall. Note the artist's hand in the mark-making – cuts and radiating lines, the suggestion of maps, geometry and counting systems – it is characteristic of Wortsman's practice. Warm, contemporary, uniquely crafted, yet speaks to ancient, tribal traditions of art-making that cross cultures and histories. Highly attuned to the art of Africa, the Middle East, India and Asia, his forms are organic abstracts with masculine and feminine attributes that resonate together as a pleasing enigma. They make sense immediately, yet never give up all their secrets. Midnight Blue was recently exhibited at Harold Wortsman: Time and Space, Orange Art Foundation, New York City, February 2022. From Harold Wortsman – "With sculpture, my material of choice is high-fired clay. Pieces are first low-fired in an electric kiln. I do not use glazes. Instead, I use oxides applied to the bisqued (low-fired) clay. As with a tattoo, oxides permit the surface underneath to breathe—like naked skin. The work is then high-fired in a gas kiln with double reduction to cone 10. The final temperature is 2,300 degrees F. At a certain point, oxygen intake is reduced to the kiln. Because the fire has reached a critical mass, it needs oxygen and chemically takes it from the clay and the oxides painted on. Like a jazz improvisation, each kiln load comes out slightly different." From Jonathan Goodman – "Wortsman has increasingly moved into his own – a place in which the relations between the abstractions of volume and the intimations of very old culture are merged in a way that is new." – Essay, "Harold Wortsman: Time and Space", Orange Art Foundation, February 2022, New York City. Harold Wortsman is a sculptor and printmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He “creates forms that bring to mind archaic cult objects and exude a quiet concentrated strength.” (Argauer Zeitung, Switzerland). His work, an edgy mix of freedom and clarity, can be found in public and private collections in the US, including The Library of Congress, Yale University, The New York Public Library Print Collection, The New York Historical Society, Smith College, Indiana University’s Lilly Library, Brandeis University, The Newark Public Library Special Collections Division, and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Print Archive. Also in private and public collections in Europe, including the Municipal Collection of the City of Brugg, Switzerland. Harold studied at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, with sculptor George Spaventa...

MONUMENT, a ceramic sculpture of high-fired clay pigmented with oxides, is a recent work by artist Harold Wortsman. Note the volumetric geometry inhere...

"Home" is an abstract artwork by Stan Olthuis composed of acrylic paint on baltic birch panel. Home measures 40" high by 30" wide by 1" deep. Typical of the artist, this minimal geometric abstraction resonates with a rich charge. It's a sculpture and a painting. The lines are elegant. The artist's obsession with geometry and intersecting shapes is a clear gesture here. The eye delights in the formal play of shape and color, while the mind engages the material force of the wood and paint. From Stan Olthuis – "My work has always involved tactility and expressionistic energy. I visualize the story and imagery simultaneously, allowing the work to surprise me and come to life as I work. I am almost careless in how I use color and texture, facing the fear of improvising on-the-fly. I like to leave the obvious raw record of the process visible, but I believe a mystery remains." Stan Olthuis looks for expressive opportunities in found and harvested raw material – wood, stone, metal, rubber – and brings a fabricator's expertise to the work of making minimalist, joyful sculptures. Geometry is key, as are a sense of play and an adept's feel for sacred energies. His work is exhibited and collected internationally, including private and corporate commissions in Canada, United States, France, Japan and Norway. Stan is represented by Gagné Contemporary in Toronto and New York City, and has select works available through the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), and Motokawa Gallery in Japan. Stan Olthuis' formal education began in Chicago with Henk Krijger, the celebrated master printmaker, type designer, painter and sculptor. Back in Toronto, Olthuis graduated (with distinction) with a degree in Experimental Arts at Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), studying under artists Fred Hagen, Tom Hodgson...

"Insignia" #1 Hand Made Paper Aquatint Abstract Tactile Abstract on handmade paper by David Dodsworth (English, b-1952) David’s work is typified by his...

Artist: Harry Hoehn, American (1917 - 1974) Title: Untitled Year: circa 1963 Medium: Aquatint Etching, Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 18/50 Image Size: 17.5 x 23 inches ...

Jean Miotte - Original Etching 1998 Dimensions: 41 x 33 cm Edition: /40 From La Déchirure Jean Miotte, 1926 - 2016 Miotte came of artistic age in the decade after World War II when non-figurative gestural abstraction was emerging on both sides of the Atlantic as the contemporary artistic language. The term, "L'Art Informel," was coined by the French critic, Michel Tapi, to connote "without form." The negation of traditional form, a radical break from established notions of order and composition, was particularly suited to a cultural environment born out of the circumstances of post war Europe where abuse of morals and fascist ideology had led to such horror and destruction. While Informel is often regarded as the European equivalent of Abstract Expressionism, it is distinguished from its American counterpart, by a loss of faith in progress and the collective possibilities of an avant garde. Rather the artists who came to be grouped as Informel, Jean Miotte, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Emil Schumacher...

Joe Durante - Lunar. Year: 1982, Medium: Etching with Aquatint, signed, dated, titled and numbered in pencil, Edition: AP, Image Size: 11.25 x 17.75 inche...