Sigmud Abeles, Biography

Sigmund Abeles was born 1934 in New York City and raised in South Carolina. He is an artist whose work deals with the expressive and psychological aspects of the human figure (and animals); an art focused on the entire life cycle. Drawing informs all his work. He works in pastels, oils, the graphic media, and sculpture. Currently, Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, after 27 years of teaching, he is working full-time in his NYC and upstate New York studio. Recipient of numerous grants and awards, a National Academician; Abeles work is in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the Philadelphia Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others. Coastal Carolina University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2000. A major one-artist exhibition was at Thomas Williams Fine Arts, London, UK in 2000. The Pastel Society of America made him their Hall of Fame Honoree for 2004 and was awarded their Degas Pastel Society Award in 2006. He is represented by The Old Print Shop, NYC, Hampton III Gallery, Greenville, SC and Cherly Newby Fine Arts, Pawley's Island, S.C. "From Whence I Came" a retrospective was held at the Burroughs-Chapin Museum of Art in Myrtle Beach, SC, his hometown, in 2007. "Passionate Lives, Passionate Lines", dual solo exhibits open in May at The Park Row Gallery and The Joyce Goldstein Gallery in Chatham NY. He is included in Humanity, One Hundred Years of Figurative Art at the ACA Gallery in NYC.

University of New Hampshire, Durham, 1970 - '87, Full Prof./tenure, elected Prof. Emeritus '87

Hall of Fame Honoree for 2004, Pastel Society of America, National Arts Club, 2004

Artist Residency Program, Chateau Rochefort En Terre, Brittany, France, summer 1999

Honoraray Doctorate of Arts Degree and commencement speaker, Coastal Carolina Univ., 2000

Passionate Lines, Passionate Lives, dual solos at Park Row Gallery & Joyce Goldstein Gallery, Chatham, NY, 2009

From Whence I Came, retrospective, Burroughs/Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC, 2007

Sigmund Abeles - Pastels, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, 2004-5

Sigmund Abeles, Things to Come, Burroughs/Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC, 2001

ABELES, Recent Pastels, Drawings & Print Survey, Thomas Williams Fine Arts, London, UK, catalog, 2000

Print Retrospective, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME, catalog w/complete print listing. 1999

Hudson River Gallery, Dobbs Ferry, NY, paintings, pastels, prints & dwgs., 1999

The Century Association, The President's Room, NYC, paintings and pastels, 1999

Sigmund Abeles, duel solo exhs.: The New York Years, 1994-98, The Brush Gallery and SA: A Survey, 1979-94 at The Whistler Museum of Art, both Lowell, MA, 1998

The Observant Hand, 40 Years of Drawing by Sigmund Abeles, Pollock Gallery, Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas TX., 1998, catalog

A 30 Year Retrospective of Drawings & Prints From the Collection of the Boston Public Library, 1993

A Traveling Retrospective, Pastels, Oils, Prints & Drawings: The Manchester Institute of Arts, Manchester, NH & New England College Gallery, Henniker, NH; McKissick Museum of Art, Univ. of SC, Columbia; The Fine Arts Center/Cheekwood, Nashville, TN; Wellington B. Gray Gallery, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, NC and Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA, 1992 -'93, catalog

The Max Drawings, An Artist Father Draws His Premature Son to Health: 1985 - '92, 13 sites including: The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, The Trition Musuem of Art, Santa Clara, CA, The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC, Yeshiva Univ. Museum of Art, NYC, Univ. of West Virginia, Morgantown, WV, The Shere Zadik Hospital Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel, The Newton Free Library Gallery, MA.

Retrospective, Drawings, Sculpture, Pastels & Prints, University Art Gallery, UNH, Durham, NH, 1987

Abeles: The First 20 Years, Prints & Drws.: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery; Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NB; University Art Galleries, Univ. of South Dakata, Vermillion, SD: Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK;

Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC and Albrecht Art Museum, St. Joseph, MO, 1979 - '81, catalog

Recent Drawings: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswich, ME and De Cordova Museum & Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, Univ. of NH/Durham, 1971 - '72, catalog

Memorials of War, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, 100 Years/100 Artists; Views of 20th. Cent. Art in South Carolina, S.C. State Mus., Contemp. Amer. Realism on Paper from the Collection of Jalane & Richard Davidson Gifted to the Chicago Art Instit., New York Artists/Mentors, Denise Biblro Gallery, NYC, 1999; Psychologically Charged: S. Abeles, Gregrory Gillespie, Paul Matthews, Jerome Witkin, Univ. of VT.1996; SUNY-Plattsburg, NY, 1997; Figures Dwgs.: S. Abeles, Sidney Goodman & Jody Mussoff, Atrium Gallery, Univ. of CT, Storrs, 1992; With Nothing On, New Orleans Mus. of Art, 1990, Man-Woman-Child, John Szoke gallery, NYC, 1989; The Animal Kingdom, Assoc. Amer. Artists Galleries, NYC, 1986, Contemp. Figure Dwg., Minn. College of Art & Design, MI, 1985, Works on Paper, Abeles, Basilitz, Chia, Dine, Harris & Mazur, Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 1988; Prints USA, Pratt Ctr. NYC; Contemp. Amer. Realism on Paper from the Collection of Jalane & Richard Davidson, Penn. Acad. of Fine Arts & Chicago Art Instit., 1982; American Portrait Drawings, Nat. Portrait Gallery, Wash, DC, 1980; A Selection of Amer. Art, The Skowhegan School, 1946 -'76, Instit. Contemp. Art, Boston, MA, 1976; Living Amer. Artists & The Figure, Penn. State Univ. Mus. of Art, 1974; 16 Amer. Artists of Protest, Mus. of Contemp. Art, Chicago, IL, 1971, Amer. Contemp. Prints, Instit. of Contemp.Art, London, GB; Human Concerns/Personal Torment, Whitney Mus., NYC, Dwgs. by Young Americans, Mus. of Art, Ogunquit, ME, 1969, Protest & Hope, New School for Soc. Research, NYC, 1967, Whitney Annual, Sculpture & Prints, NYC, 1966; New Talent in Printmaking, AAA Galleries, NYC, 1965

Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, The Fine Arts Mus. of San Francisco, CA; The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Bates College Mus. of Art, ME; Boston Public Library; The Brooklyn Mus.; The British Museum, London, GB; The Butler Art Instit., Youngstown, OH; Cleveland Mus. of Art, Colby College Mus. of Art, ME; The Currier Gallery of Art; The Fitzwilliams Museum, Oxford, GB; Fogg Art Museum & Harvard Semitic Mus., Cambridge, MA, Greenville County Museum of Art, SC, Honolulu Acad. of Art; Indianapolis Mus. of Art, IN; Kalamazoo Instit. of Arts; Library of Congress; Judah Magnes Mus., Berkeley, CA; The Metropolitan Mus. of Art, NYC; The Minneapolis Instit. of Arts; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; Museo de Arte, Ponce, PR; Rhode Island Sch. of Design Mus. of Art; Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston; The Mus. of Modern Art, NYC; Nat. Acad. of Design, NYC; New York Public Library; Penn. Acad. of Fine Arts; Phil. Mus. of Art; John & Mabel Ringling Mus. of Art, Sarasota, FL; Salt Lake Art Ctr.; San Diego Mus. of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, Victoria & Albert Mus., London, GB & Yale Univ. Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.

Udo & Iris Bensch, Geneva, Switzerland, Bill & Doborah Binnell, NYC & CT, Alfred Brendel, London, GB, William & Lisa Carl, Boston, Richard Davidson, Chicago IL, Neil Feitag, Paris, France, Curtis & Jackeye Finch, Little Rock, AR, Joseph Fuery & Lee Grant, NYC, Eric Greenleaf, NYC, John & Lisa Hall, NYC, Edwin & Thayer Hockberg, NYC, Linda & Douglas Honnold, Evanston, Il, Nora Lavori, NYC, Hal & Barbara Laeger, Sarasota, FL, & Fort Lee, NJ, Kit & Geraldine Laybourne, NYC & LA , Albert & Kate Merck, MA, Yasuteru Miyamoto, Tokyo, Japan, Frank H. Pearl, Wash. DC & NYC, Dr. Alfonso Pluchinotta, Padova, Italy, Joe & Bernice Tanenbaum, Great Neck, NY, Walter and Sanra Wilkie, NYC, Thomas Williams, London, GB., Joe Yohlin, Phil.PA.

The Old Print Shop, NYC, Hampton III Gallery, Greenville, SC, Cheryl Newby, Fine Arts, Pawley's Island, SC.