Foot
in Mouth Disease, 2007
Clay
2" x 1.5" x 1.5"
|
Polar Bear, 2002
Clay
3.8" x 11" x 3.1"
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Sumo, 1990
Clay
3" x 2.5" x 1.5"
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The Burden, 2005
Clay
3.75" x 2.25" x 1.5"
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Couple
Dancing, 2006
Clay
5.25" x 4" x 2"
|
Nude
Back
Oil on Canvas
47.5" x 28.5"
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Abstract
Painting
Oil on Canvas
48" x 72"
|
|
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Wood Works
87
year-old sculptor, Hy Farber, says that he carves
in wood because “it is
warm like all living things.” Subjects like supple
fruits, dancing couples, and sumo wrestlers bring to mind
vibrancy and life in a panoply of different forms. The
elegant curvature of his figures captures perpetual
motion, heightened
by the curvilinear wood grain as alive and organic as
the trees from which they are carved. Woodworking combines
the
aesthetics of sleek modernity and warm naturalism to achieve
a reinvigorated conception of sculpture. The scale of his
work elicits a jarring but familiar experience, and his
immense depictions of fruit are at once direct and surreal.
Lying
somewhere between the Pop of Claes Oldenberg and the abstraction
of Henry Moore, Farber’s figures and still-lives
renew the viewer’s relationship with sculpture
and its classical tropes.
Kellen Shipley
Biography of the Artist
Hy Farber attended the High School of Music and Art in New York. He received a scholarship of study at the Florence Cane School of Art in N.Y.C., studying with the Mexican artist, Jean Charlot. He studied commercial art at Pratt Institute.
From 1939 to 1941, Mr. Farber worked as a staff artist for the New York newspaper, P.M. He served the U.S. military during Wolrd War II as an artist for the magazine, Air Force, and for many other Army publications. One of his war-effort posters won an honorable mention in a national competition, and was included in agroup show at the Museum of Modern Art, and learned a recommendation from President Roosevelt.
A chapter in the book, The Artist in Each of Us, by Florence Cane, published in 1949, highlighted Mr. Farber and his life as a young artist.
In 1946, Mr. Farber moved from New York to Los Angeles. He studied at Art Center College of Design and graduated in 1949. He then began his career as a graphic and architectural designer. Winner of over 70 awards, his design is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Mead Paper Company, and the San Francisco Public Library. He was published in Graphis, Print, and CA magazines.
Between 1951 and 1983, Mr. Farber taught graphic design at UCLA; Manchester College of Art and Design, England; California State University, Northridge; Art Center College of Design; and California State University, Los Angeles.
Mr. Farber has been working full time as a fine artist since the mid-1980s. He has received numerous awards for his sculpture and drawings, and his work has been exhibited throughout California.
