Sanford Wurmfeld

Sanford Wurmfeld’s paintings immerse the viewer in color and visual sensations. He uses the square as the basic building block, in varying sizes and shapes, in grid patterns and opposing horizontal and vertical gradients to explore the impact of spatial relationships of hues, changes in values and degree of saturation on the psychological and emotional effects of color. The culmination of the increasing complexity of his work and scale of the seminal paintings from the late 1970s—some reaching 30 feet in length, engulfing the viewer and commanding even the peripheral vision—led to purchases by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Guggenheim Museum, New York for their permanent collections. In awe of panoramic paintings, his own work from the 1980s further inspired Wurmfeld to produce his first 360-degree painting, Cyclorama 2000, that truly immersed the viewer in continuous gradients and fields of color. While this exhibition will not include a Cyclorama painting, it will feature a large seminal painting from 1988 that utilized Wurmfeld’s more evolved overlapping and opposing grid system, along with many small and medium-sized works from select series that, in aggregate, produce a panoramic effect. In Wurmfeld’s newest work, painted in 2010 and 2011, he limits the palette and saturation of hues on a black or white ground to produce paintings that appear nearly all black or all white. The complex grid patterns and slow transitions of value provide exceptionally subtle colors that take Wurmfeld’s work to an even higher level of elegance and sophistication. But more important, the vaporous colors beg a greater engagement with the viewer to both verify the existence of color and the method of application.

Born and raised in New York, Sanford Wurmfeld studied art history at Dartmouth and taught himself to paint. Early influences were Abstract Expressionist painters Kline, Pollock, de Kooning and Rothko and then later, Monet. While traveling and living in Europe he saw the exhibition of paintings by Kenneth Noland, Frank Stella and Morris Louis at the Venice Biennale, their art influenced both his interest in and approach to studying color. In 1966 he started the MA program at Hunter College, where he studied with Ray Parker, Tony Smith, Gene Goossen and Ad Reinhardt. After becoming an adjunct faculty member of Hunter College in 1967, he formed close relationships with departmental colleagues Doug Ohlson, Vincent Longo and Robert Swain. In 1968, Goossen included Wurmfeld’s art in The Art Of The Real, 1948-68, an exhibition he curated at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Wurmfeld had his first solo exhibition that same year at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York. Later, he also had solo exhibitions at the Susan Caldwell Gallery and Denise Rene Gallery. Wurmfeld was appointed Chairman of the Art Department at Hunter College in 1978, where he held that position for 28 years. He also started the Hunter Galleries and was the Director for 20 years. He has had many museum exhibitions, written extensively and contributed his essays to seminal art publications, and his work is included in many private and public international collections.

Born December 6, 1942, New York City

Education:

Dartmouth College, B.A., 1964 (with Honors in Art, Ames Award)
Independent Study, Rome, Italy, 1964-65
Hunter College, courses toward M. A. (no degree), 1966


Academic Positions:

Phyllis and Josef Caroff Professor of Fine Arts 2000-Present, Hunter College,
           Chairman Department of Art, Elected 1978-2006
           Professor 1982-Present
           Associate Professor, 1977-82
           Assistant Professor 1972-77
           Adjunct Instructor 1967-72
External Evaluator, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
           Adjunct 1999-2003
External Evaluator, Academy Minerva, 1998; Frank Mohr Institute 2001,
           Groningen, Netherlands
California State College, Hayward Visiting Artist, Summer 1970
Cooper Union, New York, Visiting Instructor in Color Theory, 1971-72


Awards:

National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist's Fellowship, 1987-88
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, Painting, 1974-75
City University of New York, Faculty Research Award, 1997, 1993, 1991,
           1987, 1985, 1984, 1981, 1980, 1979
Ames Award, Dartmouth College, 1964


Solo Exhibitions:

Sanford Wurmfeld: Light and Dark, Minus Space, Brooklyn New York,
           March 29-May 4, 2013
Sanford Wurmfeld: Color Visions 1966-2013, Hunter College Times Square
            Gallery, New York, February 15-April 20, 2013
David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, November - December 2012
E-Cyclorama: Immersed In Color, Ewing Museum Gallery, University of
           Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, September- October 2011 (with 5 large
           paintings 2005-07 and 30 watercolors)
E-Cyclorama: Immersed in Color, Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase,
           NY, May 31-July 19, 2009 (with 41 mid-sized Study/Paintings from
           1971-2005).
E-Cyclorama, Edinburgh College of Art for Edinburgh Festival, Scotland,
           July 24-September 5, 2008; (with five large paintings 2005-07)
Cyclorama 2000, Talbot-Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, July
            31-September 25, 2004 (with 83 Study/Paintings from 1966-2003)
Cyclorama 2000, Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen Germany, November
           22, 2000-March 5, 2001; Mucsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary,
           May 28, 2002 - August 11, 2002; (Allotting, Germany, July 14 -
           August 3, 2003)
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, 1978
Bard College, Invitational Exhibit, Annandale, New York, 1977
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, 1976
Galerie Denise Rene, New York, 1974
Rockefeller Memorial Gallery, S.U.N.Y. Fredonia, New York, 1971
Bryant Park, New York - Sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs,
           New York, and the Fischbach Gallery, New York, 1969-70
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, 1968


Selected Group Exhibitions:

Op+Pop: Experiments of American Artists since 1960, Neue Staatsgalerie,
            Staatsgelerie, Stuttgart, Germany, March 23 - June 16, 2013
Hauptsache Grau, Mies van deer Rohe Haus, Berlin, March 3 - May
           19, 2013
Epitaphs, (15 original watercolors for the book of poems and images of the
           same title), Minus Space, May 2012
Pointing a Telescope at the Sun, Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY, August 2011
Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, National Academy,
           New York, 2010
regard 05:Rythmes, Espace de l+Art Concret Chateaux de Mouans,
           France, 2008
The Optical Edge, curated by Robert Morgan, Pratt Manhattan Center
           Gallery, 2007
The Grid: Process and Structure, Concordia College, Ann Arbor, MI, 2006
           and Wooster Art Space, 2007
The Panorama Phenomenon, Panorama Mesdag, The Hague, 2006
Faculty Exhibition, Times Square Gallery, 2005
Longo, Ginnever, Smith, Wurmfeld: Macquettes, Wooster Art Space 2004
Donation Albers-Honegger, Espace de l?Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux,
           France, 2004
Farbe Als Farbe, Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany, 2004
Moved, Hunter College Times Square Gallery, 2004
Painted Parameters, Andre Zarre Gallery, NY, 2003
Seeing Red, Hunter College, Times Square Gallery, 2003
Color: A Life of its Own, Mucsarnok, Budapest, 2002
           Invitational Exhibition, American Academy of Arts and Letters, March
           6 - April 2, 2000
Red, Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Germany, 1999
Abstraction Index, Condeso-Lawler Gallery, New York, 1997
Faculty Exhibition, MFA Gallery, Hunter College, 1996
In Small Dimensions, Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, 1995
American Color, Louis Stern Fine Arts, Los Angeles, 1995
MFA Faculty Artists, MFA Gallery, Hunter College, New York, 1999
Pleasure, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center Buffalo, New York, 1991
Physicality, MFA Gallery, Hunter College, New York, 1991
Artists for Amnesty, Blum Helman Warehouse and Germans van Eyk,
           New York, 1990
The Grid: Organization and Idea, Ben Shahn Galleries, The William
           Peterson College of New Jersey, Wayne, 1990
Raymond Saunders: Some Choices, Long Beach Museum of Art,
           California, 1989
A Debate on Abstraction: The Persistence of Painting, Leubsdorf Gallery,
           Hunter College, New York, 1989;
Bard College, Annandale, New York, 1987
Repetition: A Postmodern Dynamic, Hunter College Art Gallery, New York,
           1984
Approaches to Abstraction: Art from C.U.N.Y., Shanghai Exhibition Hall,
           China, 1985
Labor Intensive Abstraction, The Clocktower, New York, 1984
Carnegie International, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 1983; Seattle Museum of
           Art, 1984
Toni Birckhead Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1980
Patterns +, Dayton Art Museum, Ohio, 1979
Inaugural Exhibit, Toni Brickhead Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1979
Frankfurt Book Fair (Prints), 1974
Students Invite Artists, Bard College, Annandale, New York, 1978
Organization of Independent Artists, World Trade Center, New York, 1977
Geometry of Color, Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, 1977
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, 1977
Review of Contemporary Painting, Lehigh University, Bethlehem,
           Pennsylvania, 1976
Galerie Denise Rene, New York, 1975
Strassenkunst Programme, Hannover, Germany, 1974
Inaugural Group Show, Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, 1974
Hopkins Center Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire,
           1974
Galerie Denise Rene, New York, 1974
Strassenkunst Programme, Hannover, Germany, 1971
Three from New York: Indiana, Hinman, Wurmfeld, Galerie de Gestlo,
           Bremen, West Germany; Kunstfair, Basel
Drawings, Fort Worth Art Center, 1969
The Art of the Real, 1948-68, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968;
           Grand Palais, Paris, 1968; Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1968; Tate Gallery,
           London, 1969


Film Exhibits (Films made together with Michael Wurmfeld):

Collective for Living Cinema, New York, 1980
Institute of Urban Studies, New York, 1973
Columbia Film Festival, New York, 1973
Ramapo State College, New Jersey, 1973
Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1972
Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany, 1972
State University of New York, Fredonia, New York, 1971
Drexel University, Philadelphia, 1970


Graphics Published:

New York Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation,
           CUNY/NYU/NSF, ...Beam of Light (poster) 1996
The Fund for New York City Public Education, "There is Art in Teaching",
            (poster), 1990
Edition Domberger Annual Portfolio, 1980, 1974,1971, 1970
11-21 + Black, Edition Domberger, 1979
Sanford Wurmfeld, Color/Scale Paintings, Susan Caldwell Gallery,
           (poster) 1978
Art Information Calendar, Stuttgart, Germany, 1979
Friends of the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., (card print), 1972
Edition Domberger, Five Part Series, 1970
Museum of Modern Art, New York, (card print), 1969
Sanford Wurmfeld, Dept. of Cultural Affairs , New York, and the Fischbach
           Gallery, (poster) 1968


Essays Published:

Color in Catalogue for exhibition of Jakob Bill, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich,
           December 2012
Invited Paper, AIC Conference, Zurich, June 2011, Apparent Luminosity in Painting: A History and
           analysis+.
Interview with Charles Perry about his life and work, Norwalk, Ct , June 2011
Interview with Verena Schindler, Colore 67, Milano, Italy, August 2010,
Seurat Drawings: Reconstructed Reveries, Master Drawings, June 2008
Perceptual Color Phenomena in Abstract Painting and the Cyclorama Project, Proceedings of the
           International Conference on Color Harmony, Budapest 2007, forthcoming.
Why a Cyclorama?, Proceedings of the International Panorama Conference, New York, 2004.
           The Panorama in the Old World and the New, ed. By Gabriele Koller, 2010.
Getting to the Cyclorama: A Brief Personal History, for catalogue Cyclorama, Talbot Rice Gallery,
           The University of Edinburgh, 2004
Introductory Remarks for the Symposium: Color as Experience, Seeing Red, eds. Michael Fehr and
           Sanford Wurmfeld, Salon Verlag, Cologne, 2004
Colour Painters/Colour Painting+ Colour Perception: Philosophical, Psychological, Artistic, and
           Computational Perspectives, edited by Brian Funt, Vancouver Studies in Cognitive
           Science, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Color in Abstract Painting, Color for Scientists, Engineers, and Artists, edited by Kurt Nassau,
           Elsevier, Netherlands, 1998.
From Surface to Luminous Film Color in Abstract Painting, for catalogue Structure Color, Wake Forrest
           University, 1996.
Presentational Painting, for catalogue Presentational Painting, Hunter College Art Galleries, 1993
The Education of the Artist, for catalogue The First Decade of the MFA Hunter College 1981-91,
           Hunter College Art Galleries
On Color Charts and Painting, for catalogue Color Order and Aesthetics: The Oeuvre of Dr. Amelius
           Muller, Hunter College Art Gallery, New York, 1987
Approaches to Abstraction, for catalogue Art from C.U.N.Y., Shangahi, China, 1986
Color Documents: A Presentational Theory, catalogue for exhibition of same title, Hunter College Art
           Gallery, New York, 1985
Introduction, for catalogue A Debate on Abstraction, Hunter College Art Galleries, 1988-89

Lectures:

University of Tennessee, Departments of Art and Architecture, October 2011
French Institute of Architects, Paris, April, 2010
Gallery Interview with Irving Sandler, Neuberger Museum, June 2009
Gallery Talk, Neuberger Museum, June 2009
International Panorama Conference, Dresden, Germany, 2008
International Color Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 2007
Panel, -The Optical Edge+, with Robert Morgan, Pratt Manhattan Center, 2007
International Panorama Conference, The Hague, NL, 2006
Gallery Talk, Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh, 2004
Symposium on Color, Goethe Haus, New York, 2003
Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA 2002
Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland, UK 1997
University of Groningen, Netherlands, 1996
Academy Minerva and Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands, 1996(published)
University of Victoria, B.C., Canada, 1996
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, "Color Symposium," 1996
Hochschule der Kunste, Berlin, Germany, 1995
Whitney Museum, Federal Plaza, New York, 1992
Chelsea College of Art, London, 1991
The Slade, University College, London, 1991
Princeton University, Visual Arts Program, New Jersey, 1990
Bard College, Annandale, New York, 1989
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987
School of Visual Arts, M.F.A. Program, New York, 1987
Bard College, Annandale, New York, 1986
Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1986
Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, New York 1982
Bard College, Annandale, New York, 1976
Livingston College, Brunswick, New Jersey, 1973
State University of New York, Fredonia, 1971
Drexel University, Philadelphia, 1970


Public Collections:

Espace de l+Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France
Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Germany
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sprengler Museum, Hannover, Germany
Strassenkunst Programme, City of Hannover, Germany
S.U.N.Y., Fredonia
Ackland Memorial Art Center, Universisty of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, (on loan from Henry Geldzhaler
           Collection)
Brooklyn Museum (print)
Central Trust Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
A.T.&. T., New York
General Electric Co., Corporate Headquarters, Fairfield, Ct.
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, Architects, New York
United States Steel Corp., Pittsburgh
Baxter Travenol Laboratories, Dearfield, Illinois
Silkscreeners Guild, Germany
Warner National Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio