| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
October Issue
2008
Spartanburg Art Museum in Spartanburg,
SC, Features Works by Harold Krisel
Spartanburg
Art Museum (SAM) in Spartanburg, SC, is presenting the exhibit,
The Harold Krisel Print Collection From SAM's Permanent Collection,
on view through Oct. 25, 2008.
Krisel (1920-1996) was a renowned artist, architect, and teacher, as well as an inspiration and mentor to his loving family. He also contributed a significant amount of work to the Spartanburg community. Roger Milliken hired Krisel's Architecture firm to design his Spartanburg research facility, "Upon its (the building's) completion we found a glorious, multi-fountain display which was not only beautiful but helped to recycle the air conditioning water in our headquarters. From then on Harold Krisel was instrumental in creating many paintings and sculptures for us-including those that brighten the walls of the prize-winning Greenville/Spartanburg Airport."
Krisel went on to create a fountain located on Wofford College's Butler Circle. His family celebrated the artist's ties to Spartanburg by donating forty of his prints to the permanent collection of the Spartanburg Art Museum, prints that will be on display in the left gallery of the museum. In these prints, Krisel demonstrates his deep-rooted understanding of shape and color. His pieces are not meant to signify anything profound or philosophical. He made them for public enjoyment.
Although Krisel's sights were set on being able to create visual art from an early age (first painting then to print making), his mother persuaded him to keep up with school so that he could have something to fall back on. He decided to become an architect and studied architecture at the Chicago Institute of Design's New Bauhaus from 1946 to 1949.
Krisel became a member of American Abstract Artists in 1946 and retained this membership for the rest of his life. He completed his graduate studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1952 and worked for the prestigious architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (where he met Milliken) until 1966, when he joined the faculty of the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. Once retired, Krisel was able to live his lifelong dream of full-time dedication to both his art and his family. He continued to work on commissioned sculptures, fountains, and graphics in his Bridgehampton, Long Island studio.
Krisel also has works in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the British Museum (London), the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Trinity College (Dublin), the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Princeton University Library.
SAM has signed limited edition Krisel prints available for purchase at $250 each.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Museum at 864/582-7616 or visit (www.spartanburgartmuseum.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.