Works of art by an influential educator, internationally recognized master printer, and figure painter will be on display in the Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery. “Harvey Breverman: A Decade of Drawing, 2005-2015 (Idiosyncratic Amalgams and Disparate Composites)” opens Oct. 17 and runs through Nov. 17.
A reception and an opportunity to meet the artist will be held on Friday, Oct. 20 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the gallery. The reception and exhibition are free and open to the public.
“Harvey Breverman: A Decade of Drawing, 2005-2015 (Idiosyncratic Amalgams and Disparate Composites)” includes 43 drawings which feature portraits of famous writers, poets, artists, and scientists, as well as architectural scenes from cities around the world. His recent large drawings utilize montage and assemblage to create unpredictable and idiosyncratic juxtapositions.
Originally hired to teach at the State University at Buffalo in 1961, Breverman was promoted to full professor in 1969. Thirty years later, he received the rank of Distinguished Professor in the State University of New York. In 2003, he received the distinguished teaching of art award from the College Art Association. He retired from the State University of Buffalo in 2005. In 2013, the Burchfield Penney Art Center recognized Breverman as a “Living Legacy” artist.
Breverman is a lifelong student of the Holocaust and often references his Jewish identity in his artwork.
The exhibition includes large collaged drawings from Breverman’s “Codex” series. In the 52 x 28 inch drawing “Tedlock with Scepter,” UB Distinguished Professor and world-renowned scholar of Mayan culture Dennis Tedlock sits holding a beautifully rendered scepter. Above him is an intricate drawing of a Mayan temple and collaged images of Mayan hieroglyphs and architectural details.
Breverman says of the “Codex” drawings, “I am trying to make 21st century illuminated manuscripts. They focus largely on a mélange of materials, the linking of fragmentary forms and elements, combining ancient architectural floor plans and elevations, Hispano-Iberian illuminated manuscripts, Masoretic texts, marginalia, folkloric symbols, and ceremonial artifacts. I take fragments from several worlds, allowing them to collide, intersect, and be superimposed.”
In the t-shaped, 52 x 30 inch drawing, “Davening with Dine,” Breverman pays homage to internationally renowned artist Jim Dine. Both artists graduated from Ohio University and both are devout practitioners of Judaism. Davening refers to the recitation of Jewish liturgical prayers. Dine is especially renowned for his stunning drawings of hand tools that are both gestural and precisely rendered. In Breverman’s drawing, highly realistic portraits of tools fill both sheets and a more gestural drawing of pliers divides two profiles of Dine.
Breverman has exhibited in major cities around the world including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Basel, Belgrade, Bologna, Caracas, Cracow, Honolulu, London, Milan, New York, Oslo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Tokyo, Toronto and Vienna. He has been awarded more than 87 solo exhibitions. Among the New York galleries that have represented him are the Associated American Artists Galleries, FAR Gallery, Nardin Galleries, and Babcock Galleries. His work can be found in the permanent collections of more than 150 museums including the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Jewish Museum in New York; Burchfield Penney Art Center and Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, National Museum of American Art and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., the British Museum in London and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Breverman received grants and awards from the Tiffany Foundation in 1962, the Netherlands Government in 1965, the New York State Council on the Arts in 1972, the National Endowment for the Arts in 1974 and 1980, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980 and 1981. Representing the United States, he participated in international print biennials in Bulgaria, China, Egypt, England, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey.
Contact Marion Art Gallery Director Barbara Räcker at 716-673-4897 or barbara.racker@fredonia.edu to schedule a group tour or to request an exhibition catalog.
Gallery hours are: Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 4 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Funding for this exhibition is provided by the Fredonia College Foundation’s Cathy and Jesse Marion Endowment Fund and Friends of Rockefeller Arts Center.
