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The nicest distance between two points is a curve

H.C. WESTERMANN
1922		born in Los Angeles
1981		died

Solo Shows

2006		Honolulu, HI, The Contemporary Museum. Dreaming of a Speech Without Words: The Paintings and Early Objects of H. C. Westermann. August 25 – November 19 (catalogue). Travelling to the Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, February 10 – May 27, 2007; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, June 30 – October 21, 2007; Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, November 21, 2007 – March 2, 2008.
2001		Chicago, IL, Museum of Contemporary Art. H. C. Westermann. June 30 - September 23, 2001. Travelled to Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, February 14 - May 12, 2002; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA June 9 - September 8, 2002; The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, October 4, 2002 - January 5, 2003. Exhibition Catalogue and Catalogue Raisonné. Chicago, IL, The David and Alfred Smart Museum, The University of Chicago. See America First: The Prints of H.C. Westermann, curated by Dennis Adrian and Richard A. Born. June 28 - September 9. Travelled to The University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville; Laguna Art Museum, CA, and the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX.
1997		Richmond, CA, Richmond Art Center. H. C. Westermann/West. September 20 - November 15. Madison, WI, Madison Art Center. Sincerely, Cliff: H. C. Westermann at the Madison Art Center. December 7 - February 2.
1994		Honolulu, HI, The Contemporary Museum. Concentrations 2: H. C. Westermann. September 7 - November 6.
1989		Lawrence, KS, University of Kansas, Spencer Museum of Art. H. C. Westermann: Graphics and Sculpture. April 2 - May 21. Brochure - text by Stephen Goddard.
1987		Chicago, IL, The Art Institute of Chicago. H. C. Westermann: Selections from the Alan and Dorothy Press Collection. March 13 - May 3. Brochure - text by Neil Benezra.
1984		San Francisco, CA, John Berggruen Gallery. H. C. Westermann: Constructions and Watercolors. October 17 - November 17.
1982		Kansas City, MO, Morgan Gallery. A Tribute to H. C. Westermann: 1922-1981. January 5-13. Akron, OH, Akron Art Institute. H. C. Westermann: Sculpture and Watercolors. January 23 - March14.
1980		London, Serpentine Gallery. Arts Council of Great Britain (organizer). H. C. Westermann. December 5- February 8, 1981. Catalogue - introduction by Dennis Adrian.
1978		New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. H. C. Westermann. May 17 - July 16. Travelled to: New Orleans, LA, New Orleans Museum of Art, August 25 - October 15; Des Moines, IA, Des Moines Art Center, November 13 - December 25: Seattle, WA, Seattle Art Museum, January 17 - February 25, 1979; San Francisco, CA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, March 30 - May 20, 1979. Catalogue - text by Barbara Haskell.
1977		San Francisco, CA, John Berggruen Gallery. The Connecticut Ballroom: A Portfolio of Six Woodcuts. May 11-26. Kingston, RI, Fine Arts Center, University of Rhode Island. H. C. Westermann. November 8-26.
1972		Philadelphia, PA, Moore College of Art. H. C. Westermann. October 27 - November 21.
1971		Chicago, IL, Allan Frumkin Gallery. H.C. Westermann: Recent Sculpture. February 5 - March 10. Portfolio of reproductions. Berkeley, CA, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. H. C. Westermann: Recent Work. April 6 - May 16. New York, Allan Frumkin Gallery. H. C. Westermann October 2-30.
1968		Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. H. C. Westermann. November 26 - January 12, 1969. Travelled to Chicago, IL, Museum of Contemporary Art. January 29 - March 2, 1969. Catalogue – text by Max Kozloff.
1966		Kansas City, MO, Kansas City Art Institute. H. C. Westermann. October 4-30.
1956		Rockford, IL, Rockford College Art Gallery. Sculpture by H. C. Westermann.
1954		Willmette, IL, National College of Education. Paintings by H. C. Westermann.

Group Shows (Selection)

2004		New York, The Painting Center. Anxiety Curated by Davide Sharpe and Jimmy Wright. November 2-27 Exhibition Catalogue.
2002		Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums, Sert Gallery. Romancing the Wreck. June 28 – August 3.
2001		Katonah, NY, Katonah Museum of Art. Horsetales: American Images and Icons 1800 – 2000. Curated by Ezra Shales and Susan H. Edwards. October 14 – December 30. Exhibition Catalogue. Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum. Eye Infection: Robert Crumb, Mike Kelley, Jim Nutt, Peter Saul, H. C. Westermann. Curated by Christiaan Braun. November 2, 2001 - January 20, 2002. Exhibition Catalogue by Christiaan Braun, essay by Robert Storr.
2000		Stamford, CT, Whitney Museum of American Art, Fairfield County. Chicagoloop: Imagist Art. Curated by Cynthia Roznoy. September 15 - December 6.
1998 - 2000		Little Rock, AR, Arkansas Art Center. Twentieth Century American Drawings: From the Arkansas Art Center Foundation Collection. Curated by Gerald Nordland. February 13 - March 15. Travelled to Charleston, WV, Sunrise Museums, September 6 - November 8, 1998; Naples, FL, Philharmonic Center for the Arts, December 11, 1998 - January 30, 1999; Fort Wayne, IN, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, February 21 - April 18; Knoxville, TN, Knoxville Museum of Art, May 16 - July 11; Boise, ID, Boise Museum of Art, August 8 - October 17; Mobile, AL, Mobile Museum of Art, November 7, 1999- January 9, 2000; Beaumont, TX, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, January 30 - March 26; Corpus Christi, TX, Art Museum of South Texas, April 23 - June 19; Omaha, NE, Joslyn Art Museum, July 16- September 10; Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, October 15 – December 31. Exhibition Catalogue.
1997		Munchen, Germany, Haus der Kunst. Deep Storage, Arsenale der Erinnerung. August 3 - October 12. Travelled to Nationalgalerie SMPK, Berlin December January 1998; Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf im Ehrenhof, February 1998; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, July 5 - August 30, 1998; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, November 5 - January 31, 1999. Curated by Ingrid Schaffner and Matthias Winzen, Exhibition Catalogue.
1996		New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. Altered and Irrational. January - March. New York, Museum of Modern Art. Deformations: Aspects of the Modern Grotesque. March - May 21. Oceanville, NJ, The Noyes Museum. Selected American Drawings 1945-1995. April 7 - June 23. New York, UBU Gallery. The Subverted Object. October 26, 1996 - January 4, 1997.
1991		Houston, TX, Contemporary Arts Museum. Word as Image, American Art 1960-1990. February 23 – May 12.
1989		New York, P.P.O.W. Broken Landscape, Discarded Object January 10 - February 4. Virginia Beach, VA, Virginia Beach Center for the Arts. Made in America. April 5 - June 11. Catalogue – texts by Jane Kessler, Walter Darby Bannard, Lowery S. Sims. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. 15 Years of Collecting. July 28 - October 22.
1988		New York, Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center. Sculpture Since the Sixties, from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. August 19 - August 9, 1989.
1987		New York, Xavier Fourcade, Inc. Drawings. January 9 -February 7.
1985		Paris, Ecole National Superiereure des Beaux-Arts, organized by the Menil Collection, Houston, TX. Cinquante ans des dessins Americains 1930-1980. May 3 - July 1. Oceanville, NJ, The Noyes Museum. An Inside Place. June 2 - September 8. Exhibition Catalogue. Utica, NY, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Museum of Art. Heart and Soul: Bodily Encounters. June 29 - September 8.
1982		Milwaukee, WI, Milwaukee Art Museum. American Prints 1960-1980. February 5 - March 21. Catalogue – text by Verna Curtis. New York, Xavier Fourcade, Inc. Sculpture. July 8 - September 17. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. Block Prints. September 9 - November 7.
1980		New York, Xavier Fourcade, Inc. Small Scale: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture. January 12 - February 23. Des Moines, IA, Des Moines Art Center. Options for Collectors #3. July 14 - September 1. Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn Museum. American Drawings in Black and White. August 2 - September 28. London, Camden Arts Center. Who Chicago? December 10 - January 25, 1981. Travelled to: Sunderland, Geolfrith Gallery, Sunderland Arts Center, February 16 - March 14, 1981; Glasgow, Third Eye Center, March 21 - April 20, 1981; Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, May – June 1981; Belfast, Ulster Museum, July - August 1981. Exhibition Catalogue. Norfolk, VA, The Chrylser Museum. Crimes of Compassion. April 16 - May 31. Exhibition Catalogue.
1979		New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. 1979 Biennial Exhibition. February 14 - April 1. Exhibition Catalogue. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Downtown Branch. Enclosure and Concealment. April 18- May 23. New York, School of Visual Arts. The Intimate Gesture. October 1-22. Sao Paulo, Brazil, Armando de Arruda Pereira Pavilion. XV Bienal de Sao Paulo. October 3 – December 9.
1977		New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. 1977 Biennial Exhibition. February 15 - April 3. Catalogue - introduction by Barbara Haskell, Patterson Sims, and Marcia Tucker. Chicago, IL, Museum of Contemporary Art. A View of a Decade. September 10 - November 10. Catalogue - introduction by Stephen Prokopoff, texts by Martin Friedman, Peter Gay, and Robert Pincus-Witten. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Downtown Branch. Small Objects. November 3 – December 7.
1974		Urbana, IL, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois. Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture 1974. March 10 - April 21. Catalogue - introduction by James R. Shipley and Allen S. Weller. Los Angeles, CA, Margo Leavin Gallery. Drawings. April 11 - May 11. Chicago, IL The Art Institute of Chicago. Seventy-first American Exhibition. June 15 - August 11. Westermann received Frank G. Logan Prize. Catalogue - introduction by A. James Speyer. Washington, DC, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution. Made in Chicago. October 31- December 29. travelled to Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, January 11 - March 2, 1975. Catalogue: text "Made In Chicago" by Whitney Halstead, "H.C. Westermann" by Dennis Adrian. This exhibition is an expanded version of the U.S. entry in the 1973 Sao Paulo Bienal. Portland, OR, Portland Art Museum. Masterworks in Wood: The Twentieth Century. September 17 - October 19. Catalogue: foreword by Frances J. Newton; introduction by Jan van der Marck. Washington, DC, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution. Sculpture: American Directions, 1945-1974. October 3 - November 30. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. 200 Years of American Sculpture. March 16 - September 26. Catalogue: texts by Tom Armstrong, Wayne Craven, Norman Feder, Barbara Haskell, Rosalind E. Krauss, Daniel Robbins, Marcia Tucker. Amherst, MA, Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Massachusetts. Critical Perspectives in American Art. April 10 - May 9. Catalogue: texts by Sam Hunter, Rosalind E. Krauss, Marcia Tucker. A revised version of the exhibition was the U.S. section of the Venice Biennale, 1976. Venice, Italy. United States Pavilion. LaBiennale de Venezio, 1976. July 18 - October 10. Catalogue: introduction to U.S. entry by Thomas M. Messer; text by Hugh M. Davies. Chicago, IL, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Visions-Painting and Sculpture: Distinguished Alumni 1945 to the Present. October 7 - December 10. Catalogue: introduction by Dennis Adrian.
1973		New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. 1973 Biennial Exhibition: Contemporary American Art. January 10-March 19. (catalogue). New York, The New York Cultural Center. 3D Into 2D: Drawing in Sculpture. January 19 - March 11. travelled to: Brooklyn, NY, Art Gallery, Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York; Vancouver, Canada, The Vancouver Art Gallery; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, The National Gallery of Canada; Oberlin, OH, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College; Santa Barbara, The Art Galleries, University of California. Catalogue: introduction by Susan Ginsberg. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. American Drawings 1963-1973. May 25 - June 22. Catalogue: text by Elke M. Solomon. Budapest, Hungary. Ileme Biennale International de la Petite Sculpture. (Second International Biennial of Small Sculpture). September 22 - November 11. (catalogue). New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. Extraordinary Realities. October 16 - December 2. travelled to: Syracuse, NY, Everson Museum of Art, January 15 - February 18, 1974; Cincinnati, OH, Contemporary Arts Center, March 8-April 27, 1974. Catalogue: text by Robert Doty. Sao Paulo, Brazil. XII Bienal de Sao Paulo. October 5 - November 20. travelled to: Bogota, Columbia, Museo de Arte Moderno, January 15 - February 21, 1974; Santiago, Chile, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, March 25 - April 29, 1974; Buenos Aires, Argentina, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes; May 27 – July 1, 1974; Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno, July 29 - September 9, 1974. U.S. entry was later shown at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, as Made in Chicago. Westermann was one of ten recipients of the International Prize of the Bienal de Sao Paulo. Catalogue: essay of U.S. Entry by Don Baum. Hanover, NH, Darthmouth College. Wood-Works: An Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture in Wood. December 7 - January 14, 1974. travelled to: Andover, MA, Addison Gallery, Phillips Andover Academy, January 18 - February 24; Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, March 1-26; Durham, NH, Paul Creative Arts Center, University of New Hampshire, April 4-May 3; Storrs, CT, The William Benton Museum of Art, The University of Connecticut, May 25-August 11; Brunswick, ME, Bowdoin College Museum of Art August 16-September 22. (catalogue).
1972		Sarasota, FL, Ringling Museum of Art. After Surrealism: Metaphors and Similes. November 17 – December 10. Catalogue: text by Leslie Judd Ahlander. Los Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery. Sculptors' Drawings. November 18 - December 31. New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 10 Independents: An Artist Initiated Exhibition. January 14 - February 27. Catalogue: introduction by Dore Ashton. Birmingham, AL, Birmingham Museum of Art. American Watercolors 1850-1972. January 16 – February 13. travelled to: Mobile, AL, The Mobile Art Gallery, February 22-March 31. Catalogue: text by Edward F. Weeks. Chicago, IL, Museum of Contemporary Art. Chicago Imagist Art. May 13-June 25. Smaller version of exhibition travelled to: New York, The New York Cultural Center, July 21-August 27. Catalogue text by Franz Schulze. Kassel, Germany. Documenta 5. June 30 - October 8. (catalogue).
1971		La Jolla, CA, La Jolla Museum of Art. Continuing Surrealism. January 15 - March 21. Catalogue: introduction by Lawrence Urrutia.
1970		Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art. 1970 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Art. October 30 - January 10, 1971. Catalogue introduction by Leon Anthony Arkus. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. 1970 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture. December 12 - February 7, 1971. (catalogue).
1969		Chicago, IL, Allan Frumkin Gallery. Group Exhibition. Included Westermann's series of lithographs See America First. Grand Rapids, MI, Grand Rapids Art Museum. American Sculpture of the Sixties. March 22 - May 24. Catalogue: introduction by Dore Ashton. Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art. Towers. September 13 - October 25. Denver, CO, Denver Art Museum. American Reports-The Sixties. October 25 - December 7. Philadelphia, PA, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. The Spirit of the Comics. October 1 - November 9. American Federation of Arts Traveling Exhibition: Columbus, OH, Huntington Trust Gallery, February 22 - March 15, 1970; Milwaukee, WI, University of Wisconsin, June 28 - July 19, 1970; Ames, IA, Iowa State University Memorial Union, September 9 - October 11, 1970; Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, November 1-22, 1970, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, The Edmonton Art Gallery, December 13, 1970 - February 14, 1971; Johnson City, TN, East Tennessee State University, Carroll Reece Museum, March 7-28, 1971; Brookings, SD, South Dakota State University, South Dakota Memorial Art Center, April 18 - May 9, 1971. Catalogue: text by Joan C. Siegfried. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. Human Concern/Personal Torment: The Grotesque in American Art. October 14 - November 30. travelled to: Berkeley, University of California, University Art Museum, January 20 - March 1, 1970. Catalogue: text by Robert Doty.
1968		West Lafayette, IN, Purdue University Art Gallery. Snoitcerid. March. New York, Museum of Modern Art. Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage. March 27-June 9. travelled to: Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, July 16-September 8; Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, October 19-December 8. Catalogue: text by William S. Rubin. Kassel, Germany. 4. Documenta. June 27-October 6. (catalogue). San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Untitled, 1968*. November 9-December 29. Catalogue: foreword by Gerald Nordland; introduction by Wesley Chamberlain. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. 1968 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture. December 17-February 9, 1969. (catalogue).
1967		Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. American Sculpture of the Sixties. April 28-June 25. travelled to: Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, September 15-October 29. Catalogue: introduction by Maurice Tuchman; texts by Lawrence Alloway, Wayne V. Andersen, Dore Ashton, John Coplans, Clement Greenberg, Max Kozloff, Lucy R. Lippard, James Monte, Barbara Rose and Irving Sander. Chicago, IL, The Art Institute of Chicago. Sculpture-A Generation of Innovation. June 23 - August 27. Catalogue: introduction by A. James Speyer. Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art. 1967 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture. October 27-January 7, 1968. Catalogue: foreword by Gustave von Groschwitz.
1966		Minneapolis, Walker Art Center. Eight Sculptors: The Ambiguous Image. October 22 - December 4. Catalogue: introduction and essay on Westermann by Martin Friedman.
1965		Worcester, MA, Worcester Art Museum. The New American Realism. February 18 - April 4. Catalogue: introduction by Martin Carey. Providence, Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art. Contemporary Boxes and Wall Sculpture. September 23 - October 17. Catalogue: text by Daniel Robbins.
1964		Pasadena, CA, Pasadena Art Museum. New American Sculpture. February 11 - March 7. Catalogue: foreword by Walter Hopps. Chicago, IL, The Art Institute of Chicago. 67th Annual American Exhibition. Directions in Contemporary Painting and Sculpture. February 28 - April 12. Catalogue: foreword by A. James Speyer. London, Tate Gallery. Painting and Sculpture of a Decade: 1954-1964. April 22 - June 28. Catalogue: text by Alan Bownes, Lawrence Gowing, and Philip James. The Hague, Netherlands, Haags Gemeentemuseum. Nieuwe Realisten (New Realism). June 24 – August 31. travelled to: Vienna, Museum de 20. Jahrhunderst; Berlin, Akademie der Kunst; Brussels, Musee Communal de Bruxelles. (catalogue). New York, American Federation of Arts Traveling Exhibition. A Decade of New Talent. July 15-29. travelled to 21 galleries and museums, August 28, 1964 - September 30, 1966. Milwaukee, WI, Milwaukee Art Center. Wisconsin Collects. September 25 - October 25. New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. 1964 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture. December 9 - January 31, 1965. (catalogue).
1963		Urbana, IL, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois. Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture. February 26 - April 2. Catalogue: text by Allen S. Weller. Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum. 11 New England Sculptors. July 18 - September 15. Catalogue: introduction by Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr. Oakland, CA, Oakland Art Museum. Pop Art USA. September 7-29. Catalogue: text by John Coplans.
1961		Urbana, IL, University of Illinois, Krannert Art Museum. Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture. February 26 - April 2. Catalogue: text by Allen S. Weller. New York, Museum of Modern Art. The Art of Assemblage. October 2 - November 12. travelled to: Dallas, TX, The Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, January 9 - February 11, 1962; San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art, March 5 - April 15, 1962. Catalogue: text by William C. Seitz.
1959		Lake Forest, IL, Lake Forest College, North Campus, Henry C. Durand Art Institute. The New Chicago Decade 1950-1960. May 27 - June 13. Catalogue: introduction by Allan Frumkin. New York, Museum of Modern Art New Images of Man. September 30 - November 29. travelled to Baltimore, MD, Baltimore Museum of Art, January 9 - February 7, 1960. Catalogue: text by Peter Selz, prefatory note by Paul Tillich. Houston, TX, Contemporary Arts Museum. Out of the Ordinary. November 26 - December 27. Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago. 63rd American Exhibition: Paintings, Sculpture. December 2 - January 31, 1960. (catalogue).
1957		Chicago, IL, North Exhibition Hall, Navy Pier. The Art Institute of Chicago (sponsor). 1957 Chicago Artist's No-Jury Exhibition. February 12-26. (catalogue).
1956		Chicago, IL, The Art Institute of Chicago. Artists of Chicago and Vicinity: 59th Annual Exhibition. March 8 - April 12. (catalogue). Chicago, IL, 414 Art Workshop and Gallery. Sculpture by H. C. Westermann and Paintings by Ivan Mischo. May.
1955		Chicago, IL, 120 Art Center.