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August Issue 2005

Hampton III Gallery in Taylors, SC, Features Works by Sigmund Abeles

Hampton III Gallery in Taylors, SC, just outside of Greenville, SC, is hosting the exhibition, Sigmund Abeles: Now and Then, on view from Aug. 25 through Oct. 2, 2005. The exhibition will include over 100 paintings, drawings and prints from the years 1951-2003. Most of the works will feature the figure for which Abeles is known; however, a grouping of work will cover the early years when Abeles resided in South Carolina.

Born in New York in 1934, Abeles' ties with South Carolina go back to 1936 when his mother moved the two of them to Myrtle Beach. It was in the low country of South Carolina that Abeles' fascination with art developed. Abeles states, "Sculpture at Brookgreen Gardens is the first art I ever saw. It was big, powerful, and I wondered how anyone could ever have done that. Trucks would go pass my mother's boarding house carrying wrapped, draped figures. Sometimes I'd see an exposed leg or arm. My steps were my world." Abeles frequented the gardens and first drew the human figure from the stones. Two of his first works painted at Brookgreen are featured in the gallery's current exhibition.

In the early 50's during his formal years of training, Abeles went back and forth from the Art Student's League in New York to University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. In 1955, he received a scholarship to study at Skowhegan in Maine, and, in 1956, a scholarship to study print-making at the Brooklyn Museum School. While many artists during those years were pursuing Abstract Expressionism, Abeles stood firm in Representational Art. After a period of service in the US Army, Abeles returned to South Carolina, hoping for a teaching position. When nothing materialized, he landed in New England teaching in Massachusetts and then at the University of New Hampshire from 1970-1987.

Drawing is still the foundation of Abeles' work. "I draw all the time. For me, drawing is a lifeline to life," says Abeles. In a recent conversation Abeles reflects, "I love drawing things alive. I love life. I can only get involved with subjects that have eyes. I look at a crowd, and someone stands out. Everything an artist does is through selection. Editing is through selection. I don't think you get universality through generalization. I deal with specifics."

One work in the exhibition is Abeles' reaction to 9/11: Who Can Forget How Blue the Sky Was Beforehand?. The artist was in his Manhattan studio on the upper west side the morning the planes hit. This work has been on tour, but will be presented for the first time in South Carolina on the exhibit's opening night. The subject is a self portrait (front and back) of Abeles grasping the air, falling from the sky.

Sigmund Abeles work has been collected by private and public collections throughout the United States and abroad. Museums that have his work in their permanent collections include The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the Metropolitan, MOMA, and the Whitney Museum in New York; the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, The Art Institute in Chicago, among others.

Abeles will give a talk about his work on Aug. 25, 2005, at Hampton III Gallery at 8pm.

Abeles has three works owned by the Columbia Museum of Art in the exhibition, A Body of Work: The Human Figure from Degas to Diebenkorn, on view through Oct. 2, 2005, at the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, SC. Abeles will give a gallery talk at the Museum on Aug. 20, 2005, at noon and then a Demonstration and Workshop, that same day from 2-4pm. For info call 803/799-2810.

Works by Abeles are also on view at the McKissick Museum of Art at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, in the exhibit, Highlights from the Permanent Collection: Prints by Sigmund Abeles, on view through Sept. 17, 2005.

For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 864-268-2771, or a (www.hamptonlllgallery.com).


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