Artist Statement
Bernard Kirschenbaum (1924 - 2016) was an architect and sculptor who created structures that engaged with, and transformed, their surroundings. His work brings observers into this collaboration between an artwork and the space around it. "My work closely relates people to the sculpture. It invites people to place themselves in warping spaces; to change their height and therefore their perspective; to put themselves in an enclosing color environment; or be surrounded by patterns.”  Kirschenbaum was an accomplished geometrician, designing and building the world’s first geodesic dome residence and creating sculptures that celebrate two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and arrangements.  He discovered an elegant tessellation that had never been seen in human history and used it in his sculptures. Kirschenbaum also explored the beauty evident in random patterns and surfaces. An early adopter of computer technology, he wrote his own programming to automatically randomize the size, sidedness, orientation, and placement of geometric shapes.  In a nod to the beauty of random patterns in nature, he often created uniformly irregular surfaces on his sculptures, such as the powdery red-brown patinas of rusted steel, the scatter of pigment chips in urethane, and spots of white against a blue enamel background.

CV

EDUCATION
1942-3     Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
               (Horticulture)
1943-6     U.S. Army
1946-7     Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
               (Theatre Arts)
1948-50   Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
               (Architecture)
1950-52   Institute of Design, Chicago, IL
               (Architecture)

TEACHING
1986-92   Swedish Royal Academy of Art,
               Stockholm, Sweden

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019        Self Portrait, Postmasters Gallery, New
               York, NY (July 26 – August 24)
2018-19   Ayn Foundation presents: Bernard
               Kirschenbaum, Mana Contemporary,
               Jersey City, NJ 
2018        Bernard Kirschenbaum, Postmasters
               Gallery, New York, NY
               (Sept. 08 – Oct. 20)
2017        Bernard Kirschenbaum, Galerie
               Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden
               (May 19 – June 22)
1996        Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden
1991        Art Against Aids, Galerie Nordenhake,
               Stockholm, Sweden (August 17)
1984        Malmö Kunsthall, Malmö, Sweden
1981        Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm,
               Sweden
1980        Galleriet, Lund, Sweden
               Galerie Nordenhake, Malmö, Sweden
               Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, NY
1979        Sculpture Now, Inc., New York, NY
1978        Wade Gallery, Washington, DC
1977        Sculpture Now, Inc., New York, NY
1976        Sculpture Now, Inc., New York, NY
1975        112 Greene Street Gallery, New York,
               NY
1973        Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington,
               DC
               112 Greene Street Gallery, New York,
               NY
1972        Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
1969        Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
1966        Park Place Gallery, New York, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018-19   Flat Out: Works on Paper, 1960–2000,
               Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
               (Oct. 14 – April 01)
2018        Different Shapes, Eric Firestone Gallery,
               East Hampton, NY (May 26 – June 24)
2016        Grayscale, Postmasters Gallery, New
               York, NY (June 24 – August 16)
2008        Reimagining Space: The Park Place
               Gallery Group in 1960s New York,
               The Blanton Museum of Art, University
               of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
               Agents, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm,
               Sweden (July 09 – August 24)
2004        Multiplex, Skulpturen Hus, Stockholm,
               Sweden
1984        Malmö Kunsthall, Malmö, Sweden
               Varieties of Sculptural Ideas, Max
               Hutchinson Gallery, New York, NY
1983        Iron Cast, Pratt Manhattan Center
               Gallery, New York, NY
               Praesentation, Galerie Norballe,
               Copenhagen, Denmark
               ARS 83, The Helsinki Ateneum, Helsinki,
               Finland
               Nocturn, Siegel Contemporary Art, New
               York, NY
               New York i Linköping, Östergötlands läns
               museum, Linköping, Sweden
               Artists for Nuclear Disarmament,
               Municipal Gallery, Burlington, VT
1982        Drawings/Prints/Photographs, Frank
               Marino Gallery, New York, NY
               Englund Kirschenbaum Ohlin, Modern
               Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
1981        Selections from Moderna Museet, Palais
               Des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium
               Sculpture Now, Galerie Nordenhake,
               Malmö, Sweden
1980        Less is More, Galerie Nordenhake,
               Malmö, Sweden
               Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
1979        Large Works, Galleri Engström,
               Stockholm, Sweden
1978        Indoor/Outdoor Sculpture Show, P.S. 1,
               Queens, NY
1977        Collection in Progress, Moore College of
               Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1976        Sculptors Drawings, Fine Arts Building,
               New York, NY
               Rooms, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY
1975        4 Sculptors, Lehman College, New York,
               NY
               Sculpture Now, Inc., New York, NY
1974        Sculpture in the Park, Van Saun Park,
               Paramus, NJ
               Anarchitecture, 112 Greene Street
               Gallery, New York, NY
1973        Sculpture in the Fields, Storm King Art
               Center, Mountainville, NY
               112 Greene Street Gallery, New York,
               NY
1972        Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis
               Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
1971        Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
               Sculpture in the Park, Van Saun Park,
               Paramus, NJ
1970        Referendum ’70, Paula Cooper Gallery,
               New York, NY
               Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis
               Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
               Drawings, Bard College,
               Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
1969        Books Boxes and Things, The Jewish
               Museum, New York, NY
               Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
1968        The Door, Museum of Contemporary
               Crafts, New York, NY
               Cool Art – Abstraction Today, Newark
               Museum, Newark, NJ
               Park Place Gallery, M.I.T. Gallery,
               Cambridge, MA
1967        Serial Art, Finch College Museum, New
               York, NY
               Sculpture in Environment, Central Park,
               New York, NY
1966        Park Place Gallery, New York, NY

AWARDS
1981        National Endowment for the Arts
               Fellowship
1976        National Endowment for the Arts
               Fellowship for Sculpture
1975        New York State Creative Arts Public
               Service Grant
1973        Guggenheim Fellowship in Sculpture

PUBLIC WORKS
2015        Crazy Column, Seligmann Center for the
               Arts, Sugar Loaf, NY
2004        Skulpturen Hus exhibition Multiplex at
               the former factory of Alfred Nobel in
               Stockholm, Sweden
1987        Spiral, Malmo, Sweden
1983        Yksitoista [Arc For Helsinki], Helsinki,
               Finland
1978        Way Four and Twist for Max, Lynden
               Sculpture Center, Milwaukee, WI
1954        Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line
               Domes for the US Government, later
               included in the garden of The Museum
               of Modern Art, NY & at the Pompidou
               Center, Paris

Download Complete CV & Bibliography