Postmasters is very excited to announce the exclusive representation of the estate of Bernard Kirschenbaum.
Kirschenbaum had a sizable and influential presence in early sixties and seventies downtown New York
art community. He was an integral part of the early years of Park Place Gallery, 112 Greene Street Space, Sculpture Now Gallery, and Anarchitecture Group.
He was one of the first artists to be shown at Paula Cooper Gallery.
Kirschenbaum's early engagement with topographics and computational systems feels increasingly prescient in our digitized contemporary moment.
Originally trained as a designer and architect, Kirschenbaum collaborated with Buckminster Fuller before turning to sculpture in the early 60s.
In everything he did, he was chasing one of the most abstract of concepts: the "elegant solution," a notion mostly known in mathematical circles,
that attempts to solve a problem in the most efficient, refined, beautiful manner, to arrive at the ultimate form.
The same succinct computations define the purest solutions in architecture, mathematics, and ultimately, computer science.
Kirschenbaum strived for the elegance and concision that motivated the ventures of modernists and minimalists alike. His was a unique perspective,
though, especially in the emerging movement of geometric abstract object making. From the outset, the calculative complexities of Kirschenbaum's
architectural work informed his exploration of shapes, space, and patterns. It led him to see and define such forms as topographic surfaces,
not unlike today's computer modeling programs.
In his first show in 1966, at the invitation of Forrest "Frosty" Myers, at Park Place Gallery, he exhibited a cluster of geodesic domes. In 1969, he exhibited two vast,
geometric works made of painted steel at Paula Cooper Gallery: Two Element City and Three Element City, whose striking red and brown diamond shapes swirling around blue pentagons,
originated in the floor design for a residential geodesic dome he built for Susan Weil, the artist and his future wife. This aperiodic tiling system, which Kirschenbaum
invented independently in the early sixties, would later become known as Penrose Tiles, after the British physicist who published a description of them in 1974.
Through the 1970s, Kirschenbaum worked on series of geometric sculptures and installations involving the parabola and catenary. Several of these large-scale works
involved soft materials — cable, chain, or pipe — spanning distant points to produce a composition of catenary arcs.
Other prominent series of works include hanging and curtain-like installations to engage viewers in a transformed space; computer-controlled plotter drawings,
in which new concepts of algorithmic "randomness" and rule-making evoke the ancient concept of fate; and an extraordinary Self-Portrait series, originating
from a mandala-like drawing, in which Kirschenbaum nests seventeen polyhedra within a larger, concentric whole. A triangle nests within a square, within a pentagon,
within a hexagon, within heptagon, within an octagon, within an nonagon, within a decagon, within a hendecagon, within a dodecagon, within a tridecagon, and so forth.
Subsequently, this group of shapes became a vocabulary to create works using computer logic. By applying a few simple rules to these elements, one of them being algorithmic randomness,
Kirschenbaum created several series of plotter drawings and sculptures.For Kirschenbaum, elegance was experiential and abstracted, existing beyond the objects in the world, including those he created.
In a review of Plywood Arcs, a 1973 exhibition at 112 Greene Street, writer Ellen Lubell wrote:
The curve of the circle of the present piece was plotted on a computer; whether or not this makes
any difference to the viewer when confronted by the piece is questionable, but this knowledge does
reveal an aspect of Kirschenbaum's relationship to the art-making process. Kirschenbaum is not
interested in his pieces as objects of aesthetic delectation, but as objects of a kind of
experience which itself is subject to a kind of aesthetic delectation. We are not treated to the feel
of his hand in this work, nor the scope of his personal expressiveness; instead, what he has done is to
produce, almost industrially, an object which invites us to form a physical relationship with it as no
ordinary base-bound or Cubist-related sculpture could possibly do. —Arts Magazine, February 1974
Postmasters will begin the 2018 fall season with a solo exhibition of Bernard Kirschenbaum, spanning both galleries on Franklin Street, on September 8.
Bernard Kirschenbaum (1924-2016), a native New Yorker, studied horticulture and architecture at Cornell University and the IIT Institute of Design (founded as the New Bauhaus) in Chicago, respectively.
He was a soldier in United States Army from 1943 to 1946. He worked with Buckminster Fuller and exhibited, among other places, at Park Place Gallery; Paula Cooper Gallery;
112 Greene Street; Sculpture Now Gallery; Corcoran Gallery of Art; Max Hutchinson Gallery; Galerie Nordenhake, Malmö and Stockholm; Malmö Konsthall; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
For further information and a list of available works, please contact the gallery.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Model Dome Cluster (1966), aluminium, Masonite, Plexiglas; diameters: 152.4 cm; 274.3 cm Installation view at Postmasters, New York.
Originally trained as a designer and architect, Kirschenbaum collaborated with Buckminster Fuller before turning to sculpture in the early 60s. In everything he did, he was chasing one of the most abstract of concepts: the "elegant solution," a notion mostly known in mathematical circles, that attempts to solve a problem in the most efficient, refined, beautiful manner, to arrive at the ultimate form. The same succinct computations define the purest solutions in architecture, mathematics, and ultimately, computer science.
By the time he had his first show at Park Place Gallery in 1966, Kirschenbaum was deeply involved in two- and three-dimensional topographic explorations, which led him to the creation of unique and novel geometric compositions. These works, based on patterns consisting of diamonds and pentagons, demonstrated his discovery of an entirely new geometric system, which ten years later became know as the Penrose system.
Model domes were his first step away from functional architecture. Focusing on form rather than functionality, the beauty of Kirschenbaum's domes is their focus on the shape itself. A dome derives from a sphere--the most "elegant" of shapes.
As pictured here, there were originally three domes, all shown at his first exhibition, at Park Place Gallery, in 1966. Only two exist today.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Three Element City (1969), painted steel tile elements (red, blue and brown), dimensions variable, installed dimensions as pictured: 355.6 x 975.4 cm (wall), 377.2 x 1200.2 cm (floor). Installation view at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Three Element City is one of the prime, large-scale manifestations of Kirschenbaum's geometric patterning system. Red and brown diamond shapes are dispersed among blue pentagons.
This image is from his 1969 solo exhibition at the Paula Cooper Gallery. A floor to ceiling version of the piece was installed at the Lannon Foundation in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Two Element City (1969), painted steel tile elements (white, orange and yellow), dimensions variable, installed dimensions as pictured: 373.4 x 396.2 cm (wall), 405.1 x 993.1 cm (floor) Installation view at Postmasters, New York.
Two Element City is one of the prime, large-scale manifestations of Kirschenbaum's geometric patterning system. It uses a striking combination of orange and yellow diamond shapes dispersed among white pentagons.
This image is from his 1969 solo exhibition at the Paula Cooper Gallery.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Wall Column (1969), painted steel (blue and grey), 374.7 x 122 cm. Installation view at Postmasters, New York.
Wall Column exemplifies a smaller manifestation of Kirschenbaum's geometric pattern system. Three clusters of diamond shapes, identical in form but inverted in color, stacked on top of each other suggest the potential of an infinite system of repetition.
It was exhibited at the Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York in 1969.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Corner Piece, (1969) polyurethane on plywood, 325 x 183 x 183 cm. Installation view at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Besides his topographical investigations, Kirschenbaum made a series of steel and chromatic spatial compositions exploring basic geometric forms.
Corner Piece is one such example. The piece comprises a group of rectangular prisms and cubes, each with a vivid read or blue polyurethane finish, and some of the red components textured with blue.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Cast Iron Arc (1972), cast iron, 130 x 1485 cm.
Kirschenbaum's fascination with geometric shapes and physical expression of "elegant" geometrical and mathematical formulas led him to make several large-scale works on the theme of the arc — the progression from a line to a circle and of parabolas. This interest yielded several large-scale arc sculptures, in both two- and three-dimensional forms.
Cast Iron Arcdeals with the physics of gravity and weight in two dimensions. The material itself is raw, heavy, and elemental, yet the weight is counterbalanced with the "elegant" lightness of shape, even with its monumental scale. The work appears to hover effortlessly above the floor.
Cast Iron Arc was exhibited in 1972 at the Paula Cooper Gallery. In 1983, the work was exhibited at the Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery in New York.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Dimensions 1 (1972), weathering steel, 244 x 244 cm (wall diameter). Installation view at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1973
"Indoor/Outdoor P.S.1, 1978
The series Dimensions follows invented rules that play with the relationship between two and three dimensions.
Dimensions 1 takes a rectangular shape as its starting point, splitting it "elegantly," which does not always mean equally. The nine resulting elements hang on the wall as two-dimensional forms. The same cuts are made with another piece of steel, the results of which, in this case, are assembled as three-dimensional shapes, placed on the floor adjacent to the wall. The series includes three pieces (all 1972): Dimensions 1, which is rectangular; Dimensions 2, which is circular; and Dimensions 3, which is triangular.
All three were first exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1972. They were then part of the exhibition Three New York Artists at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1973.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Dimensions 2 (1972), weathering steel, 244 cm. Installation view at Eric Firestone Gallery, New York.
Dimensions 2 takes a circular shape as its starting point, splitting it "elegantly," which does not always mean equally, along three diagonals. The six resulting elements hang on the wall as two-dimensional forms. The same cuts are made with another piece of steel, the results of which, in this case, are assembled as three-dimensional shapes placed on the floor adjacent to the wall. The series includes three pieces (all 1972): Dimensions 1, which is rectangular; Dimensions 2, which is circular; and Dimensions 3, which is triangular.
All three were first exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1972. They were then part of the exhibition Three New York Artists at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1973.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Dimensions 3 (1972), weathering steel, wall diameter: 244 x 282 cm. Installation view at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Dimensions 3 takes a triangular shape as its starting point, splitting it "elegantly," which does always mean equally. Cutting each side from the middle results in six elements that hang as two-dimensional forms on the wall. The same cuts are made with another piece of steel, the results of which, in this case, are assembled as three-dimensional shapes placed on the floor adjacent to the wall.
The series includes three pieces (all 1972): Dimensions 1, which is rectangular; Dimensions 2, which is circular; and Dimensions 3, which is triangular.
All three were first exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1972. They were then part of the exhibition Three New York Artists at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1973.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Plywood Arcs (1973), plywood, 163 x 1524 x 20 cm. Installation view at Mana Contemporary, New Jersey.
Plywood Arcs achieves a meditative spatial experience with the simple juxtaposition of a convex and concave arc. The length of the piece equals the radius of the arc, while the arc is positioned at a slightly asymmetrical distance. Even so, the two elements are complementary; if fitted together, they would form a rectangular shape. Kirschenbaum's mathematically informed "rules" are invisible to the viewer but leave one with a sense of equilibrium.
Plywood Arcs was exhibited at 112 Greene Street, one of the first alternative art spaces in New York City, in 1973.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Monument to the Earth (1981), polyurethane on wood, eighty-two parts totaling 225 x 550 x 550 cm. Installation view at Postmasters, New York.
Monument to Earth was first shown at Aronowitsch Gallery, Stockholm in 1981. Later exhibition dates include Malmö Konsthall (1984) and Nordenhacke Gallery, Stockholm (2017).
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Way 1 (1976), aluminum, 220 x 254 x 20 cm. Installation view at Sculpture Now Gallery.
Kirschenbaum's Ways series elaborates on the relationships and intersections between basic geometric shapes (square, triangle, and circle), by bisecting one with the other, then shifting and recombining the resulting shapes.
Way 1 is a triangle bisected by a circle; its center is the top tip of the triangle. The resulting section of the circle is shifted to the side while the tip remains in place, marking the tip of the original triangle. Fabricated from thick aluminum plates, the smooth surfaces fit perfectly together, an indication of Kirschenbaum's obsession with impeccable fabrication.
Way 1 was first exhibited at the Sculpture Now Gallery in New York in 1976. Later exhibitions include Nordenhacke Gallery, Malmö in 1980 and Nordenhacke Gallery, Stockholm in 2017.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Way 2 (1976), stainless steel, height: 305 cm, diameter: 30 cm. Installation view at Sculpture Now Gallery.
Way 2 is a key example of this. A narrow cylindrical shape is horizontally bisected in half by a sphere with a diameter that equals the height of the cylinder. The two resulting pieces have concave ends--the top piece with a concave base, the bottom piece with a concave top. This enables the top section to slightly shift off-center and still maintain the balance of the column.
Kirschenbaum's mathematically informed "rules" are invisible to the viewer but leave one with a sense of equilibrium.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Self-Portrait (1980), cherry wood, thirteen parts, ranging from 24cm to 312cm in diameter. Installation view at Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York.
Kirschenbaum's fascination with geometric shapes and physical expression of "elegant" geometrical and mathematical formulas informed many of his works. Employing his background as an architect and engineer in his artistic practice, he was probably one of the first artists to incorporate computers and computer science into his creative process.
Keeping with his minimal, geometric, abstract language, Kirschenbaum generated a series of simple geometric shapes and experimented with compositions that explored the relationship between the resulting forms. This process relinquishes manual rule making for automated algorithmic "randomness." The starting point to these mathematical, conceptual explorations was his composition, Self Portrait.
Self Portrait is a deeply personal work. Its approach materializes Kirschenbaum's exploratory, optimistic, and forward-looking abstract thinking. Impeccably fabricated, its thirteen pieces can seamlessly fit together to occupy a small space, or be arranged in such a way to fill a vast space. No matter the spatial arrangement, the piece begins as a triangle positioned in the center of a square, positioned in the center of a pentagon, positioned in the center of a hexagon, and so on, until arriving at a seventeen-sided shape. As with many of his works, its puzzle-like quality also signals to Kirschenbaum's interest in interactivity and decision-making processes.
The work was first exhibited at Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, in 1980.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Line to Circle (1975), rust line on galvanized steel, 112 x 3353 cm. Installation view at 112 Greene Street Gallery, New York.
Bernard Kirschenbaum,Step Piece -- "Park Place Gallery" (1968), painted wood, 96.5 x 289.6 x 289.6 cm.
Step Piece achieves its elegance through simple compositional "rules." Three pairs of simple, white wedge shapes perfectly come together to form a sophisticated, animated surface that evokes a cyber-landscape.
Step Piece was exhibited in Hayden Gallery at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA in 1968.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Blue Steel Parabola 1 (1971), blue spring steel, steel bracket, 168 x 320 cm (21 parts + bracket).
Parabolas first appear as suspension sculptures in Kirschenbaum's work. Rigid or soft materials like cable chain or thin pipe suspend between two points, "naturally" assuming a parabolic shape.
Wall pieces like Blue Steel Parabola 1 translate and abstract this physical phenomenon, drawing the shape with independently, naturally hanging narrow strips of heavy blues steel sheets. The identical strips indicate and introduce Kirschenbaum's motive toward modularity.
Blue Steel Parabola 1 was exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1971.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Galvanized (1971), galvanized steel, 244 x 853 cm.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Ring and Bar (1972), weathering steel, length: 669 cm, diameter: 213 cm.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Untitled (1973), spring steel, diameter: 274 cm. Installation view at 112 Greene Street Gallery.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, 298 circles (1976), Upson board, cable, weights, diameter: 77.5 cm. Installation view at Sculpture Now Gallery.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Walk Through (1970) painted steel, 305 x 735 x 304 cm. Installation view at Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, Florida.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Untitled (1996), computer-generated compositions, twelve laser cut panels, Plexiglas, 72 x 96 inches.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Untitled (1996), computer-generated compositions, laser cut Plexiglas, 72 x 96 inches.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Entropy (1996), computer-generated composition, smoke cast acrylic, 52 x 63 inches, edition of 3 + AP. Installation view at Postmasters, New York.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Blue Steel for Gordon (1979), blue steel, 538 x 2591 x 3cm. Installation view at Sculpture Now Gallery.
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Bernard Kirschenbaum, Untitled (double twist) (1984), stainless steel, 640 x 490 cm. Installation view at Malmö Konsthall.
Untitled (double twist) builds on his previous experience with topographical works, such as Model Domes (1966) and Two Element City (1969). With no internal structure to the framework, the intricately twisting columns are entirely supported by their exterior, a physically impossible feat made possible by the precise calculations Kirschenbaum generated on a computer.
It was made for his 1984 show in Malmö Konsthall, Sweden.
Bernard Kirschenbaum, Three Element City (tile study) (1959-61), plotter drawing.
