Group exhibitions have been a summer staple of the New York art scene for decades - an opportunity for lighter fare during the hottest days of the year.
In 1958, the sculptor Jeremy Anderson showed two of his students a catalogue of work by H. C. Westermann, whose sculpture Anderson was familiar through their shared dealer, Allan Frumkin. The experience was revelatory to the two young artists, Robert Hudson and William T. Wiley and would impact their careers in different ways.
In conjunction with our current exhibition of works on paper by H. C. Westermann: Le Bandeur, we spoke to a range of people who knew Westermann in life or through his work, about who he was as a person, an artist and why his work continues to resonate, thirty years after his death at the age of 59.
The gallery’s legacy going back to 1952 is inextricably linked to H. C. Westermann. There is no way to overstate his impact on the gallery both in terms of his art and his personality; both are equivalent.
Sims, the recently appointed curator of the collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art paid a visit to Westermann’s Connecticut studio in December of 1976 to look at new work.
Now on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum is Catching the Moment, a group exhibition celebrating the museum's acquisition of 833 works of contemporary art assembled by Ted L. and Maryanne Ellison Simmons.
