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The New Canaan Society for the Arts presents The New Canaan Sculpture Group Members‘ Exhibition Honoring the Memory of Harry Caesar October 15 – November 13, 2005 OPENING RECEPTION Saturday, October 15th, 4 – 6 pm Charlotte Birnbaum Stanley Bleifeld Charlotte Brown Angela Loeffel Burns Harry Caesar Nancy Cammann Jean Cobean Nancy Flavin Ellen Gilbertson Carl Glickman Lee Greenberg Barbara Hotz Edith Kolton Mimi McMennamin Liliane Medina-Trujillo Ada Osborn Ethy Palmer Richard Pauker Peter Rubino (Instructor) Gary Stein Pat Stoddard Tom Volpe Jim Youngman (Director/Instructor) Carriage Barn Arts Center – Betty Barker Gallery Waveny Park, New Canaan |
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The New Canaan Sculpture Group is a diverse collection of Fairfield County artists who work in the studio on the lower level of the Carriage Barn Arts Center. Their styles, approaches and media are unique and varied, but all share a love of sculpture and enjoy the camaraderie of the collective atelier, creating as individuals working side by side within a dynamic group. Some have been members for years, others are new to the group – and to sculpture. All are here in part because of Harry Caesar, financier-turned-sculptor, community leader, sportsman, husband, father, and friend. Taking up sculpture upon retirement, Harry Caesar turned his “delightful compulsion” for sculpting into a notable second career. His mother, Doris Porter Caesar, was an eminent sculptor and though Harry himself came to sculpture unexpectedly and later in life, he achieved considerable success. His abstract works in wood, stone, or bronze are widely collected. Frequently based on the female form, all are defined by simplified lines and a graceful fluidity. His work is described as joyful and certainly Harry seemed to thrive on creative invention, perhaps the best measure of success. Harry studied sculpture in New York, first with Chaim Gross at the New School and then with Jim Youngman, the abstract sculptor and painter who was director of the Artist Studio Center. He also joined the Bleifeld Sculpture Group in Fairfield, CT, run by the noted sculptor and teacher Stanley Bleifeld. Harry introduced Jim Youngman to that group as Bleifeld became increasingly busy and successful creating his own work. Realizing an opportunity, Harry, with characteristic zeal, spearheaded the effort to refurbish the Carriage Barn’s dilapidated basement in order to create a sculpture studio in New Canaan, his home since 1946. The Bleifeld Sculpture Group moved into the Carriage Barn in 1994, new members joined, and Jim Youngman became the Director, primary instructor, and “guiding spirit” of what then became the New Canaan Sculpture Group. Jim Youngman continues his role today as the highly respected source of sculpting advice and counsel for all matters aesthetic and technical. Jim shares the instructor role regularly with Peter Rubino, who brings his own vision and expertise to the group. On Fridays, nearly all the group members congregate and the studio hums with activity and one-on-one critique sessions with the instructors. They break for lunch ensemble and the conversation begins in earnest, covering a wide range of topics in the arts and beyond before each returns to the myriad works in progress. |
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