Isaac Witkin

This illustrated monograph explores the career of one of the most original and influential sculptors now working in the modernist tradition. His early work, as part of London's "New Generation," used unexpected materials in sculptures that married form and color in unprecedented ways. They are distinguished by their inventive polychromy and sleek industrial materials (fiberglass, plexiglass, glass, and aluminum tubing along with wood) as well as by their repetitive, curvilinear profiles and bold thrusts into space. Once in the U.S., Witkin continued to explore abstract volume and color in steel. His generously scaled constructions, equally notable for their structural audacity and emotional range, established him as a legitimate heir to the tradition of David Smith. In the early 1980s Witkin shifted to working in bronze, inventing a method of constructing with directly poured elements. This most recent work allows him to combine the sensuality of once-molten metal, the expressiveness of organic forms, the richness of bronze patina, and the immediacy of constructed sculpture. Author Karen Wilkin relates the story of the artist's career to date, discussing the evolution of his work in the context of the modernist tradition as well as the work of Witkin's contemporaries.