Michael Kessler (artist)

Last updated

Michael Kessler
Born (1954-10-23) October 23, 1954 (age 69)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArtist
Website michaelkessler.com

Michael Kessler (born October 23, 1954) is an American artist.

Contents

Art

Kessler makes nature-based paintings that merge geometric elements with biomorphism. He began his art career as a landscape painter. While still an undergraduate at Kutztown University Kessler received a fellowship from the Whitney Museum of American Art to study and produce art in New York City at the Whitney Independent Study Program. During this period (1977–78) he met many important artist working in New York City including Richard Tuttle and Dorothea Rockburne. Influenced by the paintings of Brice Marden and Elizabeth Murray as well as the music of Philip Glass and Steve Reich he began experimenting with his own work. His paintings soon became fully non-objective. Kessler's works are characterized by large fields of diaphanous color that are activated by organic linear structures that have been visually and physically woven into a grid structure which consists of thick slabs of paint. These organic linear structures are overlapped and punctuated by dendritic growth patterns that suggest the bending of time and space. All of these visual elements as well as the color combinations have been carefully extracted from nature over time through prolonged observation and then reconstructed and orchestrated to transmit the dynamics of the Natural World. In this way Kessler synthesizes disparate elements into a new kind of harmony.

In 1991 after returning from a year in Italy (via. the Rome Prize) Kessler became very involved with large-scale, site-specific installations. Gallery owner Chris Schmidt (Schmidt/Dean Gallery, Philadelphia) worked with Kessler to initiate this project by obtaining a commission from Arlen Specter for Kessler's first site-specific work which was installed in Senator Specter's office at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. In Chicago Kessler continued this pursuit with Gallery owner Paul Klein who also got involved with the placement of site-specific works in his gallery Klein Art Works.

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kutztown University.

Kessler attended the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Awards

Public collections

His paintings are held in 25 museum collections including:

Since 1983 his paintings have been shown in over two hundred exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Pollock</span> American painter (1912–1956)

Paul Jackson Pollock was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface, enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was called all-over painting and action painting, since he covered the entire canvas and used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Krasner</span> American abstract expressionist painter (1908–1984)

Lenore "Lee" Krasner was an American painter and visual artist active primarily in New York whose work has been associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. She received her early academic training at the Women's Art School of Cooper Union, and the National Academy of Design from 1928 to 1932. Krasner's exposure to Post-Impressionism at the newly opened Museum of Modern Art in 1929 led to a sustained interest in modern art. In 1937, she enrolled in classes taught by Hans Hofmann, which led her to integrate influences of Cubism into her paintings. During the Great Depression, Krasner joined the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, transitioning to war propaganda artworks during the War Services era.

Richard Joseph Anuszkiewicz was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Brooks (painter)</span> American Abstract Expressionist, muralist, abstract painter, art teacher (1906–1992)

James David Brooks was an American Abstract Expressionist, muralist, abstract painter, art teacher, and winner of the Logan Medal of the Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Emerson Baum</span> American artist and educator (1884–1956)

Walter Emerson Baum was an American artist and educator active in the Bucks and Lehigh County areas of Pennsylvania in the United States. In addition to being a prolific painter, Baum was also responsible for the founding of the Baum School of Art and the Allentown Art Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad Marca-Relli</span> American painter

Conrad Marca-Relli was an American artist who belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic, including Paris. New York School Abstract Expressionism, represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, John Ferren, Marca-Relli and others became a leading art movement of the postwar era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knox Martin</span> American painter, sculptor, and muralist (1923–2022)

Knox Martin was an American painter, sculptor, and muralist.

Mark Dean Veca is an American artist based in Altadena, California. He creates paintings, drawings and large-scale installations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irving Kriesberg</span> American painter, sculptor, educator, author, and filmmaker

Irving Kriesberg was an American painter, sculptor, educator, author, and filmmaker, whose work combined elements of Abstract Expressionism with representational human, animal, and humanoid forms. Because Kriesberg blended formalist elements with figurative forms he is often considered to be a Figurative Expressionist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnold Blanch</span> American painter (1896–1968)

Arnold Blanch, was born and raised in Mantorville, Minnesota. He was an American modernist painter, etcher, illustrator, lithographer, muralist, printmaker and art teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Hatton</span> American artist

Julian Burroughs Hatton III is an American landscape abstract artist from New York City. The New York Times has described his painting style as "vibrant, playful, semi-abstract landscapes" while New York Sun art critic John Goodrich compared him to French painter Bonnard. Hatton's abstract landscapes have also been compared to paintings by Arthur Dove and Georgia O'Keeffe because of his "unbridled love of pure, hot color". This love of colour has been likened to Gauguin and the Fauves, according to critic Ann Landi of ARTnews. Hatton's vision is of "a nature that you can literally eat with your eyes, eye candy transposed onto the entire world," according to critic Joel Silverstein.

Peter Grippe was an American sculptor, printmaker, and painter. As a sculptor, he worked in bronze, terracotta, wire, plaster, and found objects. His "Monument to Hiroshima" series (1963) used found objects cast in bronze sculptures to evoke the chaotic humanity of the Japanese city after its incineration by atomic bomb. Other Grippe Surrealist sculptural works address less warlike themes, including that of city life. However, his expertise extended beyond sculpture to ink drawings, watercolor painting, and printmaking (intaglio). He joined and later directed Atelier 17, the intaglio studio founded in London and moved to New York at the beginning of World War II by its founder, Stanley William Hayter. Today, Grippe's 21 Etchings and Poems, a part of the permanent collection at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is available as part of the museum's virtual collection.

Ed Kerns is an American abstract artist and educator. Kerns studied with the noted Abstract-Expressionist painter, Grace Hartigan and through the elder artist came to know and work with many artists of that generation including, Phillip Guston, Willem de Kooning, James Brooks, Ernest Briggs, Richard Diebenkorn and Sam Francis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polly Apfelbaum</span> American contemporary visual artist (born 1955)

Polly E. Apfelbaum is an American contemporary visual artist, who is primarily known for her colorful drawings, sculptures, and fabric floor pieces, which she refers to as "fallen paintings". She currently lives and works in New York City, New York.

Onishi Yasuaki is a Japanese artist working in the mediums of installation, sculpture, and painting.

John Millard Ferren was an American artist and educator. He was active from 1920 until 1970 in San Francisco, Paris and New York City.

Glendalys Medina's practice focuses on transcending the symbolic systems of language and image by investigating the role they play in forming identity. Medina is currently a professor at SVA’s MFA Fine Arts program and lives and works in New York.

Ann Pibal is an American painter who makes geometric compositions using acrylic paint on aluminum panel. The geometric intensity is one of the key characteristics that defines her paintings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Mesibov</span> American artist (1916–2016)

Hugh Mesibov was an American abstract expressionist artist who began his career as a federal artist for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression and later became a member of the 10th Street galleries and part of the New York School during the 1940s-60s. His work has elements of the mid-20th-century New York artistic experience such as Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist and figurative aspects across several media such as watercolor, oil, and acrylic as well as etchings, lithographs and monoprints. His work has received a global reputation and is included in many collections in the United States and worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creighton Michael</span> American abstract artist

Creighton Michael is an American abstract artist. He earned his B.F.A. in painting from the University of Tennessee, his M.A. in art history from Vanderbilt University, and later received an M.F.A. in painting and multimedia from Washington University in St. Louis.

References

  1. "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  2. https://collections.mfa.org/advancedsearch/Objects/peopleSearch%3AMichael%20Kessler;jsessionid=68CD5D73A7565527B0B7C4C4C36DE66A

General references