Exhibition

BFA Visual & Critical Studies presents "Irwin Rubin: ‘60s Polychrome," an exhibition of painted wood constructions and collages by Irwin Rubin. Curated by BFA Visual & Critical Studies and Art History faculty member Carmelle Safdie, the exhibition will be on view from Tuesday, October 1, through Thursday, October 24, at the Flatiron Project Space, 133 West 21 Street, New York, NY.

Irwin Rubin (1930-2006) was a Brooklyn-born artist and educator. “Irwin Rubin: ‘60s Polychrome” focuses on the painted woodwork and collages Rubin produced between 1960 and 1966. The exhibition includes his boxed constructions made up of cropped pegs and bisected rods, assembled into lollypop gardens, alien alphabets and kaleidoscopic architectural structures atop which Rubin conducts planar explorations of color harmony and optical phenomenon. Contrasting these works in relief are intimate compositions made with cut paper, printed fabric, lace and pressed leaves. Both the constructions and collages celebrate play, craft, material transformation and movement, establishing practices that became foundational to Rubin’s pedagogical approach to Color Theory, and continue to inform Safdie’s BFA Visual & Critical Studies Vision & Color class that meets at SVA in the fall.

In addition to the historic works on view within the gallery, the exhibition includes Ben DuVall’s HTML/CSS Painting (after Rubin), 2024, on a monitor facing West 21st Street. In this digital painting, DuVall manipulates the limited shape vocabulary of web coding to construct complex geometries in dynamic color, drawing a connection between Rubin’s hand-built structures and our contemporary digital space. This durational work slowly animates in near-infinite sequences through the run of the show.

"Irwin Rubin: ‘60s Polychrome" marks the first time Rubin’s works are on public view since the 1960s, and will be accompanied by an exhibition catalog co-authored by Carmelle Safdie and Robert Wiesenberger. Exhibition and catalog design by Darling Green. Special thanks to the Rubin family. For more information visit the Irwin Rubin Archive at www.irwinrubin.com.