Title: Vermont II

Creator: Issac Witkin

Region: Rome

Date: 1965-1972, installed at Griffiss 2009

Medium: steel, paint

Description: The Vermont series brings the influence of the Green Mountain landscape to the bright colors and smooth shapes of Pop Art. This series was created between 1965-72 while artist Isaac Witkin (1936-2006) taught at Bennington College. He had never before experienced the changes across the four seasons so dramatically. Each piece is associated with one season, with Vermont II representing summer. Witkin saw the series as "a gradual unfolding of form as from a fist to an open hand." These were his first sculptures in steel, coinciding with a distinct change in his approach. He described this change as a desire to shape space rather than to shape form." Walking around Vermont II you experience this affect on space directly. You realize that the piece is not solid but rather more of a shell, the curved steel feeling almost delicate. The bright yellow outer sections indeed feel as though they are opening to reveal the bright pink section in the middle. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Witkin studied and began his career in London, coming to the US in 1965 to teach at Bennington. He was a resident at Sculpture Space in Utica in 1977. Witkin's work is in major collections all over the world: indeed, Vermont I is owned by the Tate Gallery, London; Vermont III is in the British Arts Council collection; and Vermont IV is privately held in Switzerland.

Subject: Public art, Outdoor sculpture

Rights: © Issac Witkin 1972

(In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/)

Find out more:
http://www.sculpturespace.org/isaac-witkin-2/

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/21/nyregion/art-review-a-sculptor-committed-to-modernism.html

http://sculpture.uk.com/artists/isaac-witkin/

http://articles.philly.com/2006-08-18/entertainment/25397468_1_paintings-sculptures-canvas-or-wood

http://www.griffissbusinesspark.com/park_map.asp?id=15&type=S

“Isaac Witkin, ‘Vermont I’ 1965.” Tate. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2016. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/witkin-vermont-i-t01393/text-catalogue-entry

ID#: AO-00019

Location: Griffiss International Sculpture Garden, Rome, near the corner of Hill Road and Ellsworth Road