Nationality American Education Pratt Institute Role Artist | Name Irving Amen Website www.IrvingAmen.com Period Modern art | |
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Born 1918 New York, New York, United States Died 2011, Coconut Creek, Florida, United States Known for Painting, Sculpture, Printmaking | ||
Irving Amen (1918–2011) was a painter, printmaker and sculptor.
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Born in New York City in 1918, he began drawing at the age of four. A scholarship to the Pratt Institute was awarded to him when he was fourteen years old. With Michelangelo as his idol, he spent seven years in life classes perfecting his drawing.
From 1942 to 1945 he served with the Armed Forces. He headed a mural project and executed murals in the United States and Belgium.
His first exhibition in woodcut was held at the New School for Social Research and his second at the Smithsonian Institution in 1949 and also exhibited at the Artists House in Jerusalem, the Library of Congress, and the National Academy of Design.
Amen studied in Paris in 1950. Upon his return to the United States, he had one man shows in New York and Washington DC.
In 1953, Amen traveled throughout Italy. This resulted in a series of eleven woodcuts, eight etchings and a number of oil paintings. One of these woodcuts, “Piazza San Marco #4” and its four woodblocks constitute a permanent exhibit of block printing in color at the Smithsonian Institution.
Travel in Israel, Greece and Turkey in 1960 led to a retrospective show at the Artist's House in Jerusalem. His art is widely owned and loved. Irving Amen has taught at Pratt Institute and at the University of Notre Dame. He had a show of woodcuts at the Artists Studio in NYC.
In 1974 he illustrated The Epic of Gilgamesh in linocuts and woodcuts for the Limited Editions Club. He designed a set of stained glass windows depicting the Twelve Tribes of Israel for Agudas Achim Synagogue in Bexley, Ohio. His work often depicts themes of Judaism, chess, people, music, Italy and Don Quixote. In his later years he lived and worked in Boca Raton, Florida.
Commissions include a Peace Medal in honor of the Vietnam War. He created designs for 12 stained glass windows 16 feet high depicting the Twelve Tribes of Israel, commissioned by Agudas Achim Synagogue in Columbus, Ohio.
He is listed in Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers and the Dictionary of Contemporary American Artists by Paul Cummings. He was elected member of Accademia Fiorentina Delle Arti Del Disegno, an organization to which Michelangelo belonged.
Born in New York City, he taught at the Pratt Institute and at the University of Notre Dame in the early 1960s.
Notable collections - U.S.
Notable collections - International
Albertina Museum - Vienna, Austria Bibliothèque Royal - Brussels, Belgium University Art Museum - Edmonton, Canada Fitzwilliam Museum - Cambridge, England Usher Gallery - Lincolnshire, England Victoria and Albert Museum - London, England Biblioteheque Nationale - Paris, France Bezalel National Museum - Jerusalem, Israel Auckland City Art Gallery - Auckland, New Zealand Statische Museum - Elberfeld, Germany