Got this from Locks Gallery:
Sculptor Isaac Witkin died Sunday, April 23, 2006 at his farm in New Jersey.
A memorial service will take place at Locks Gallery, Friday, June 2, 2006, 5 pm.
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1936, Witkin immigrated to England in 1956 to study at the St. Martin’s School of Art in London and worked closely with his instructor Anthony Caro. Following his studies at St. Martin’s, Witkin worked as an assistant to Henry Moore from 1961-63.
The artist emerged onto the 1960s London art scene with a dynamic group of young sculptors known as the New Generation. Witkin’s first solo exhibition was at the Rowan Gallery, London in 1963—the artist was 27. In 1965, Witkin was included in the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s exhibition, The New Generation; and Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum in New York. That same year he had his first solo exhibit in New York and his second solo exhibit in London at Waddington Gallery. Witkin exhibited frequently at Marlborough Gallery, New York in the 1970s.
Witkin became a U.S. resident in 1965 upon being hired by Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont and taught there until 1979. Witkin also taught at Parsons School of Design and Middlebury College.
Witkin exhibited in New York throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. The sculptor began exhibiting at Locks Gallery Philadelphia in 1991 and had exhibitions there in 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001 (retrospective), 2004. An installation of large-scale, welded steel sculpture created by the artist between 1965 and 1980 will open at Locks Gallery June 2, 2006—an outdoor installation, conceived and directed by the artist.
Witkin’s work is in museum collections around the world, including:
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Centre for Modern Art, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, New York, NY
SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY
Tate Gallery, London
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Prizes, Awards, Grants:
First Prize, Quatrieme Biennale de Paris, 1965
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1981
New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant, 1985
Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, 1994
Memberships:
Board member, International Sculpture Center (ISC), 1990-2005
Elected member of National Academy of Design, New York, 1996
Elected member of Royal Society of British Sculptors, 1998
