Harvard's Fogg Art Museum Presents First Exhibition to Focus on Drawings by U.S. Artist Christopher Wilmarth

Exhibition Draws from 2001 Fogg Acquisition of the Christopher Wilmarth Archive

Art exists for a reason. The reason is simple and often forgotten. Art is man's attempt to communicate an understanding of life to man. To give in a sculpture what I understand; to imbue concrete things, with parallels to human feelings; to do this in a real way; to be believable is my purpose. - Christopher Wilmarth

CAMBRIDGE, MA (March 31, 2003) - The Harvard University Art Museums present Christopher Wilmarth: Drawing into Sculpture, on view April 5 through June 29, 2003, at the Fogg Art Museum. The exhibition features 58 works including drawings, sketchbooks, paper and card maquettes, and technical specification sheets drawn from the Fogg Art Museum's Christopher Wilmarth Archive and several private collections. Drawing into Sculpture seeks to acknowledge Wilmarth as one of the most innovative artists of his generation and is the first exhibition to focus on Wilmarth's use of drawing throughout his career and to offer insights into his artistic practice and personal vision.

An American artist best known as a sculptor in plate glass and steel, Christopher Wilmarth (1943-1987) was also a pioneering draftsman. He thought in three dimensions, visualizing his complex forms in the round. Many of his preparatory studies took the form of three-dimensional paper maquettes or plywood mock-ups. Drawing was a retrospective activity for Wilmarth, a means for the artist to return to and assess specific aspects of existing sculptures. His drawings mediated transitions from one sculpture to the next.

"This scholarly exhibition curated by Edward Saywell makes an intelligent and impassioned argument that three-dimensional works in sculptural media can be defined as drawings," said Marjorie B. Cohn, acting director of the Harvard University Art Museums. "Thanks to the generosity of Susan Wilmarth-Rabineau, the artist's widow, the Fogg Art Museum has acquired the Christopher Wilmarth Archive, which comprises over 40 sketchbooks, 62 maquettes, and hundreds of original technical and childhood drawings."

Wilmarth's work transcends straightforward categorization by medium and has never been easily accommodated in the art world's neatly defined movements. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue revisit Wilmarth's artistic practice and compelling personal vision and seek to underline the sensitivity and vibrancy of his explorations in the realm between two- and three-dimensional work and to reveal how he brought drawing and sculpture together in a fascinating and radical dialogue.

"Christopher Wilmarth was always best known for his expressive sculptures constructed from plate glass and steel," said Edward Saywell, Charles C. Cunningham, Sr., curatorial associate in the Fogg's drawings department. "Having never been previously published or exhibited, audiences will have the special opportunity to view his many sketchbooks, card maquettes and specification sheets in Drawing into Sculpture. For the first time, Wilmarth's working process will be truly revealed."

Wilmarth used many media to create his works, but he was most fascinated with glass. He visited local manufacturers to learn all he could about its physical properties and compositional possibilities. By 1969, he had begun to make sculptures from glass alone, using gently bent and curved sheets to create complex interlocking floor sculptures. Excited by these early efforts, Wilmarth began to experiment with the expressive possibilities of drawing, not on paper, but on small squares of etched blue-green glass. Drawing (1970), one of Wilmarth's earliest glass drawings, is a sublime example of his experiments with etching the surface and edges of the glass with hydrofluoric acid, during which he discovered that he could pull the sublime blue-green color of the glass to the surface and control the exact degree of its transparency.

Support for the exhibition and catalogue has been provided by The Fifth Floor Foundation, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, Martin and Deborah Hale, Sol and Carol LeWitt, and Keith and Katherine Sachs.

Biography of Wilmarth
Born in Sonoma, California, Wilmarth arrived in New York at age 17 and was captivated with the city's architecture and certainly the city's quality of light. Light was critical and inspirational to his work. He earned his B.F.A. from Cooper Union in 1965 and shortly thereafter became an exhibiting artist. In 1969 he became a Professor of Sculpture and Drawing at Cooper Union and in 1986 started teaching at Columbia University.

Gallery Talks
Christopher Wilmarth: Drawing into Sculpture
Fogg Art Museum
Sunday, April 6, 2 p.m.
Sunday, May 4, 2 p.m.
Edward Saywell, Charles C. Cunningham, Sr., Curatorial Associate, Drawings Department

About the Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums are one of the world's leading arts institutions, with the Arthur M. Sackler, Busch-Reisinger, and Fogg art museums, the Straus Center for Conservation, and the U.S. headquarters for the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, an excavation project in western Turkey.

The Harvard University Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. As an integral part of the Harvard community, the three art museums serve as a resource for all students, adding a special dimension to their areas of study. The public is welcome to experience the collections and exhibitions as well as to enjoy lectures, symposia, and other programs.

For more than a century, the Harvard University Art Museums have been the nation's premier training ground for museum professionals and scholars and are renowned for their role in the development of the discipline of art history in this country.

Location and Hours
The Fogg Art Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum are located at 32 Quincy Street in Cambridge. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is located next door at 485 Broadway. Each Museum is a short walk from the Harvard Square MBTA station.

Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday 1 - 5 p.m.; the Museums are closed on national holidays. Admission is $6.50; $5 for seniors; $5 for students; and free for those under 18 years of age. The Museums are free to everyone Saturday mornings, 10 a.m. - noon. The Harvard University Art Museums receive support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. More detailed information is available at 617-495-9400 or on the Internet at www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.

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For more information on this appointment or the Harvard University Art Museums, please contact:

Matthew Barone
Harvard University Art Museums
tel 617-495-2397; fax 617-496-9762
mbarone@fas.harvard.edu

or

Kim Gilbert/Allison Derusha
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
tel 212-671-5157; fax 212-595-8354
kgilbert@resnicowschroeder.com
aderusha@resnicowschroeder.com