JOEL-PETER WITKIN EVENTS INsight CONVERSATIONJune
13, 4-6pm Paramount Theater EXHIBITThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell June 6 - July
26 SCREENINGJoel-Peter Witkin: Renaissance by Catherine
Peix
JOEL-PETER
WITKIN began making photographs at the age of
sixteen. In the Army from 1961-64 he documented accidents
and suicides. He received a fellowship in poetry from
Columbia while earning his BFA in sculpture from Cooper
Union, and in 1996 Cooper Union awarded Witkin the Augustus
St. Gaudens medal for professional achievement.
While pursuing graduate work at the University
of New Mexico he refined his work in relationship to the
history of painting and sculpture. With his unique vision
Witkin stages photographs that “confront our sense
of normalcy and decency, while constantly examining the
teachings handed down through Christianity.”
Among his awards are two Ford Foundation
and four N.E.A grants, the ICP Award for Visual Arts,
and the Commander de L’Order des Artes et des Lettres.
He had a major retrospective at the Guggenheim in New
York in 1995. His work is collected globally, including
the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Centro
de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, NY.
"Joel-Peter Witkin
knows that, contrary to popular wisdom, we are not rational
creatures, but subject to our senses. He uses sight, our
most privileged sense, to unnerve and instruct us. Witkin’s
images do not merely shock, they enlighten, if only by
forcing us to embrace what we’d rather leave unexamined."
— Catherine Edelman Gallery
Images courtesy Catherine Edelman Gallery,
Chicago
"History
shows that only the artists who worked outside
the parameters of established art, have, and
will always make contributions to history.”
— Joel-Peter Witkin
