New Work by Sculptor Eva LeWitt On View at the Jewish Museum Beginning November 2

Detail of Untitled (Flora) by Eva LeWitt, November 2, 2018 – March 19, 2019, The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo by: Jason Mandella.

Credit: Artwork © Eva LeWitt

Release Date: October 18, 2018

New Work by Sculptor Eva LeWitt On View at the Jewish Museum Beginning November 2

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New York, NY, October 18, 2018 - The Jewish Museum presents Untitled (Flora), a new site-specific installation by sculptor Eva LeWitt on view in the Museum’s lobby from November 2, 2018 through March 19, 2019.

Eva LeWitt’s primarily abstract work addresses the sculptural concerns of weight and volume and plays with the tension between industrial and hand fabrication. Using soft and pliable, semitransparent and semiabsorptive materials, including acetate, latex, and sponge, she subtly renders variations in tone.  Alongside these formal investigations, LeWitt explores the expressive properties of light, both in the works themselves and in the spaces they inhabit.

Untitled (Flora) continues these lines of inquiry and expands on the possibilities of abstraction. Creating plantlike structures, LeWitt responds to the floral arrangements that are installed every week on the windowsills of the Jewish Museum’s lobby, acknowledging the room’s main function as a reception space. This domestic touch reflects the history of the Warburg Mansion, and brings a note of hospitality to the visitor’s experience. In LeWitt’s installation, this gesture spreads across as much surface area as possible, reimagining the lobby into a synthetic terrarium.

Each new project by LeWitt begins small-scale; she arranges interconnected networks of hard-edged and sensual shapes that stack, bend, fold, and suspend together to create a single work. She then enlarges these “models” to fill the exhibition space, balancing each piece with the next, using minimal adhesives or joinery to fix the elements in place. The artist’s openness to manipulating and accommodating the properties of her materials mirrors their pliable natures.

This new work echoes rarely seen wall drawings in the Jewish Museum’s collection by the influential Minimalist artist Sol LeWitt (1928–2007), Eva LeWitt’s father. His Wall Drawing #926 Loopy (yellow and purple) and Wall Drawing #927 Loopy (green and blue) are permanently installed on the second floor, hidden behind the Museum’s ever-changing exhibitions. Their bright colors and curvilinear lines are unlike the work he is most known for — monochromatic and rigidly geometric drawings and sculpture. Rather, their playfulness finds new resonance in Eva LeWitt’s engagement with the museum as site.

Eva LeWitt was born in 1985 in Spoleto, Italy. She lives and works in New York.

The exhibition is organized by Kelly Taxter, the Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art, The Jewish Museum.

Support
The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Wendy Fisher.

Press Viewing
Tuesday, October 30, 2018, from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm with remarks at 12:30 pm, during the press preview for Martha Rosler: Irrespective. RSVP to pressoffice@thejm.org.

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About the Jewish Museum

Located on New York City’s famed Museum Mile, the Jewish Museum is a distinctive hub for art and Jewish culture for people of all backgrounds. Founded in 1904, the Museum was the first institution of its kind in the United States and is one of the oldest Jewish museums in the world. Devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to contemporary, the Museum offers diverse exhibitions and programs, and maintains a unique collection of nearly 30,000 works of art, ceremonial objects, and media reflecting the global Jewish experience over more than 4,000 years.

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Information: The public may call 212.423.3200 or visit TheJewishMuseum.org

Press contacts

Daniela Stigh or Alex Wittenberg

The Jewish Museum

212.423.3330 or 212.423.3271

dstigh@thejm.org or awittenberg@thejm.org

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