Holy Cross’ Cantor Art Gallery to Feature Work By Acclaimed Abstract Artist Adrienne Farb

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross will present The Spiritual Landscapes of Adrienne Farb, 1980-2006 from August 30 to Dec. 16. Consisting of more than 29 works, this is the first survey exhibition of Adrienne Farb, an abstract painter who has spent her career rigorously working with color and shape.

A series of events in conjunction with the exhibit will be held at the Cantor Art Gallery and other venues on campus:

September 12, 5 p.m. Gallery talk by Adrienne Farb, Cantor Art Gallery.

October 13, 5:30-7 p.m. Reception for the artist, Cantor Art Gallery.

Also on October 13, contemporary art curators, gallery owners, and critics will gather on the Holy Cross campus for a symposium titled “Contemporary Art and the Future of Abstraction.” Moderators will be Holy Cross faculty members Joanna E. Ziegler, professor of visual arts; Christopher A. Dustin, associate professor and chair of the philosophy department. Ziegler and Dustin are the authors of Practicing Mortality: Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing. The symposium will take place from 2 - 5 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center, Room 519.

Symposium participants include: Charlotte N. Eyerman, Ph. D., curator of modern art, Saint Louis Museum; Carter Foster, curator of drawings, Whitney Museum of American Art; James Panero, managing editor, The New Criterion; Allyson Spellacy, director, Angela Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles; Judith Tannenbaum, Ph. D., Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; and Karen Wilkin, writer and frequent contributor to The New Criterion, Partisan Review, and Hudson Review.

The symposium is co-sponsored by the dean of the College, the departments of philosophy and visual arts, the Cantor Art Gallery, and private donations.

November 14, 5 p.m. “The Act of Looking: The Paintings of Adrienne Farb” An interdisciplinary discussion with Holy Cross faculty members Christopher A. Dustin, Mark Freeman, Maurice A. Geracht, Cristi Rinklin, and Joanna E. Ziegler. Stein Hall.

Adrienne Farb was born (1956) and raised in Chicago. Her exposure to art began at an early age, as her mother was a pianist and her father was an artist. Her father, Leonard Farb (1915-2005), was a Chicago-based designer and graphic artist who studied at the Institute of Design (formerly the New Bauhaus) evening program with Gyorgy Kepes, László Moholy-Nagy, and Harold Cohen. Farb’s mother, Leanora Kohn Farb (1917-2001), was a professional pianist. Her uncle, Misch Kohn (1916-2002), was one of America’s foremost mid-20th century printmakers; and another uncle, Harold Cohen, is a practicing graphic artist. A great-aunt, Ann Medalie (1896-1991), was a painter whose career spanned many countries — the United States, Mexico, South Africa, and Israel. Medalie became friends with renowned Mexican artists Diego Rivera (1886-1957) and Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) while assisting Rivera on a mural at the 1939 San Francisco’s World Fair. Adrienne Farb cites her great-aunt’s determination and conviction as some of her most important influences.

As a young adult, Farb studied art history at Brown University. The esteemed art historian, Kermit Champa (1939-2004), had a tremendous impact on her direction and development and was the first critic to recognize and champion her painting. Champa’s articles and critical essays on Farb’s work began in 1981 and ended shortly before his death in 2004. After graduation, she moved to Paris to pursue painting full time. She remained in Paris until moving to London with her husband Clément Bernard in the late 1990’s. In 2001, she moved to New York City where she currently resides, although she still maintains a studio in Paris. Her work is in public and private collections internationally.

Because issues of geographic place have been central to Farb’s work, the exhibition groups objects based on their cities of production: Paris, London, and New York.

A fully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition will be available with essays by Jay A. Clarke, Christopher A. Dustin, Charlotte N. Eyerman, and Joanna E. Ziegler.

Gallery Information

The hours for the Cantor Art Gallery are Monday - Friday 10 a.m. - 5p.m., Saturdays 2 - 5 p.m. Located in O’Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, MA, 01610. Admission to the gallery is free. Public parking is located on Linden Lane, gate 2, off College Street.

For more information, call the Cantor Art Gallery at 508-793-3356 or visit the Gallery’s Web site at: www.holycross.edu/departments/cantor/website/index.html.