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“Bob Witz: An Orbit All By Himself” December 12, 2018 to February 28, 2019 |
Untitled from Milk Carton Series, Bob Witz 1985—present 13 x 4.5 x 4.5inch mixed media
EIDIA House announces the 29th initiative of its ongoing PLATO’S CAVE exhibition, started in 2009. This special holiday salon will feature works from Bob Witz’s wry and witty “Milk Carton” series as well as painting portraits of characters conjured from the artist’s deeply esoteric imagination.
The result of a meditation inspired originally by the lunches Wit’z mother prepared for him as a child in Tomah, Wisconsin, “Milk Cartons” - we dare to propose - is a more subversive twin to Warhol’s Soup Cans.
It is an honor for EIDIA House to curate and install Bob Witz's work in the Plato's Cave vault space. While many of the sculptures exist in private and public collections, it will be the first ever exhibit of the near total compilation of Witz's "Milk Carton" series, dating back to the 1980’s and including a number of works created in 2018.
Bob recounts the origin story in his characteristic wry terms: "One day, I had this milk carton and an orange juice container and I thought I’d make some art of it."
To further commemorate this often overlooked artist, EIDIA is also in the process of making a documentary film on Witz, a mainstay of New York’s downtown scene in the 1970’s and 80’s. The film (Bob Witz Untitled) will feature Witz’s paintings and sculptures, and the literary arts publication “APPEARANCES” to capture the artist’s – still at work in his modest one room studio loft - compelling and ever-unfolding story. Including interviews with fellow artists, colleagues, scholars and friends, the film is also a portrait of the artistic circle that spanned the 60 years of Witz’s enduring art practice.
Like us at EIDIA House, they have plenty of good things to say:
"I immediately fell in love and was enamored with his works the "Milk Cartons.” The work is very much of its time using non- traditional art materials and the process. In the Art World Bob is an orbit all by himself...somebody identified Bob as an outsider artist—no way...he was very much an insider but, as an insider he was an outsider." - Jean-Noël Herlin, an artist, curator, archivist and bookseller
"I love it [Bob's work] - so quirky and eccentric. He really gets involved with strange materials. He has a really good ‘I don't care attitude.’” - Betty Tompkins, painter"I really don't like categories, but Bob is an outsider / insider because he's lived in New York all these years." - Bill Jensen, painter
"Bob is kind of like the last bohemian." - Phong Bui, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Brooklyn Rail
"Bob's a trip!" - Joe Lewis, visual artist, photographer, musician, art critic, former co-director of FASHION MODA, 1978-1993
Bob Witz was born in Tomah, Wisconsin in 1934. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1959. His correspondence with Artforum magazine in 1973 was published by the editor Robert Pincus-Witten as "Robert Witz: Selections from the Tomah Letters". He is founder and editor of the literary arts magazine, APPEARANCES 1976 - 2000. Witz had a retrospective at the New York Studio School, curated by Phong Bui in 2012 and numerous one person and group shows over the years. His works are in many private and public collections.
For PLATO’S CAVE, EIDIA House Inc. co-directors Melissa P. Wolf and Paul Lamarre (aka EIDIA) curate invited fellow artists to create an installation with (in some cases) an accompanying limited edition. EIDIA House functions as an art gallery and meeting place, collaborating with artists to create "socially radical" art forms framed within the discipline of aesthetic research.
Plato’s Cave at EIDIA House 14 Dunham Place Brooklyn, NY 11249 Contact Paul Lamarre or Melissa P. Wolf eidiahouse@earthlink.net https://www.eidia.com/ Trains: J, M, & L Hours 12-6pm, Tuesday - Sunday (or by appointment)
All milk cartons, average dimensions, 13 to 16inch x 5 x 5inch, are for the most part unsigned, untitled, unmarked—of found materials: milk cartons, frozen orange juice cans, wood, acrylics and oil pigments with some duplicated in cast bronze.
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EIDIA House announces the 29th initiative of its ongoing PLATO’S CAVE exhibition, started in 2009. This special holiday salon will feature works from Bob Witz’s wry and witty “Milk Carton” series as well as painting portraits of characters conjured from the artist’s deeply esoteric imagination.
The result of a meditation inspired originally by the lunches Wit’z mother prepared for him as a child in Tomah, Wisconsin, “Milk Cartons” - we dare to propose - is a more subversive twin to Warhol’s Soup Cans.
It is an honor for EIDIA House to curate and install Bob Witz's work in the Plato's Cave vault space. While many of the sculptures exist in private and public collections, it will be the first ever exhibit of the near total compilation of Witz's "Milk Carton" series, dating back to the 1980’s and including a number of works created in 2018.
Bob recounts the origin story in his characteristic wry terms: "One day, I had this milk carton and an orange juice container and I thought I’d make some art of it."
To further commemorate this often overlooked artist, EIDIA is also in the process of making a documentary film on Witz, a mainstay of New York’s downtown scene in the 1970’s and 80’s. The film (Bob Witz Untitled) will feature Witz’s paintings and sculptures, and the literary arts publication “APPEARANCES” to capture the artist’s – still at work in his modest one room studio loft - compelling and ever-unfolding story. Including interviews with fellow artists, colleagues, scholars and friends, the film is also a portrait of the artistic circle that spanned the 60 years of Witz’s enduring art practice.
Like us at EIDIA House, they have plenty of good things to say:
"I immediately fell in love and was enamored with his works the "Milk Cartons.” The work is very much of its time using non- traditional art materials and the process. In the Art World Bob is an orbit all by himself...somebody identified Bob as an outsider artist—no way...he was very much an insider but, as an insider he was an outsider." - Jean-Noël Herlin, an artist, curator, archivist and bookseller
"I love it [Bob's work] - so quirky and eccentric. He really gets involved with strange materials. He has a really good ‘I don't care attitude.’” - Betty Tompkins, painter"I really don't like categories, but Bob is an outsider / insider because he's lived in New York all these years." - Bill Jensen, painter
"Bob is kind of like the last bohemian." - Phong Bui, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Brooklyn Rail
"Bob's a trip!" - Joe Lewis, visual artist, photographer, musician, art critic, former co-director of FASHION MODA, 1978-1993
Bob Witz was born in Tomah, Wisconsin in 1934. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1959. His correspondence with Artforum magazine in 1973 was published by the editor Robert Pincus-Witten as "Robert Witz: Selections from the Tomah Letters". He is founder and editor of the literary arts magazine, APPEARANCES 1976 - 2000. Witz had a retrospective at the New York Studio School, curated by Phong Bui in 2012 and numerous one person and group shows over the years. His works are in many private and public collections.
For PLATO’S CAVE, EIDIA House Inc. co-directors Melissa P. Wolf and Paul Lamarre (aka EIDIA) curate invited fellow artists to create an installation with (in some cases) an accompanying limited edition. EIDIA House functions as an art gallery and meeting place, collaborating with artists to create "socially radical" art forms framed within the discipline of aesthetic research.
Plato’s Cave at EIDIA House 14 Dunham Place Brooklyn, NY 11249 Contact Paul Lamarre or Melissa P. Wolf eidiahouse@earthlink.net https://www.eidia.com/ Trains: J, M, & L Hours 12-6pm, Tuesday - Sunday (or by appointment)
All milk cartons, average dimensions, 13 to 16inch x 5 x 5inch, are for the most part unsigned, untitled, unmarked—of found materials: milk cartons, frozen orange juice cans, wood, acrylics and oil pigments with some duplicated in cast bronze.
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Previous PLATO'S CAVE Exhibitions
2009-2017
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