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David Rabinowitch (born March 6, 1943) is a Canadian
visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...
who exhibits internationally and is best known for his non-representational steel constructionsA Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada that develop the traditions of modernist
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
. New York Magazine said in 2008 that his work is related to Minimalism, but it comes from a different angle than most American examples such as that of
Carl Andre Carl Andre (September 16, 1935 – January 24, 2024) was an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks (such as ''Stone Field Sculpture'', 1977, in ...
or
Richard Serra Richard Serra (November 2, 1938 – March 26, 2024) was an American artist known for his large-scale Abstract art, abstract sculptures made for Site-specific art, site-specific landscape, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings, a ...
.


Career

Rabinowitch was born in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, and is the twin brother of sculptor
Royden Rabinowitch Royden Rabinowitch, (born March 6, 1943) is a Canadian post-minimalist sculptor who exhibits internationally. Some critics consider him one of the pioneers of modern sculpture. Rabinowitch was elected Visiting Associate 1983/84; Visiting Fellow 1 ...
. He studied at the
University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...
and the
Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD U, is a public art university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its main campus is located within Toronto's Grange Park and Entertainment District neighbourhoods ...
, Toronto. Starting in 1951, he read
Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...
's ''Ethics''; in 1959 he started on
Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, et ...
's ''Critique of Pure Reason''; and in 1961, on
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...
's ''Treatise of Human Nature'': he considers his reading of these books and other philosophical and literary texts as integral to his practise. The first sculptures he preserved were his ''Box Trough Assemblages'' and the ''Fluid Sheet Constructions'', made in 1963 and 1964. His first solo show was at the 20/20 Gallery in London, Ontario in 1968. From 1969 to 1984, the Carmen Lamanna Gallery in Toronto was his dealer. Rabinowitch moved to New York in 1972. Since then, he has had major exhibitions in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. An interest on his part in Romanesque art led to over twenty years of trips to France to study its monuments. He devoted several series of his own series to his thoughts about it as well. In 1998, he designed nine stained glass windows for the cathedral of Digne-les-Bains. In 2003, he had a major
retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...
at the
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (, MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex. Founded in 1964, it ...
, his first major solo exhibition in Canada. He is represented by the Peter Blum Gallery in New York. In late 2010 to early 2011, the Peter Blum Gallery exhibited ''Birth of Romanticism: New Works on Paper''. A reviewer wrote of it:
"The wildness of ''Birth of Romanticism'' comes as a shock. While Rabinowitch's art has often rippled with sublimated emotion and maculate tactility, these drawings suggest that its internal tensions have precipitated an irreparable rupture with its own past, eradicating its Platonic surface to expose a jarring, multi-leveled parallel world."
In 2019, he exhibited ''Périgord Construction of Vision Drawings'', a series at the Peter Blum Gallery, which derived from his visits to the Périgord region in southern France and visits to Romanesque churches. He is represented in such collections as the following: the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, New York; the
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
; the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...
, Ottawa; the
Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...
, Toronto; and the
Chinati Foundation The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd. Mission The specific intention of Chinati is to preserve and present to the public pe ...
. He was awarded many Canada Council Grants, including a Senior Grant, a Guggenheim Senior Fellowship (1975), the Canada Council's
Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award The Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award is a monetary award given since 1971 by the Canada Council for the Arts to Canadian artists judged to be outstanding in their mid-careers. Since 2005, the award is given to one recipient in each of the follow ...
(1976) and made a member of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...
. He also taught at Yale University (1974-1975) and at Düsseldorf (1984).


See also

*
Chinati Foundation The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd. Mission The specific intention of Chinati is to preserve and present to the public pe ...


References


External links

* Rabinowitch at MoM
Rabinowitch at Peter Blum GalleryDavid Rabinowitch
in conversation with Joan Waltemath in ''
The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is an American publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics, based in Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, critics, and ...
'', (OCT 2003)
David Rabinowitch's windows in the Digne Cathedral
on Narthex {{DEFAULTSORT:Rabinowitch, David 1943 births Living people Artists from Toronto Canadian sculptors Canadian male sculptors Jewish Canadian artists Canadian twins Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Canadian abstract artists