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Idelle Weber

Idelle WeberIdelle WeberIdelle Weber

(1932-2020)

(1932-2020)(1932-2020)

CHRONOLOGY

Early Life

Early Life

Early Life

1950s

Early Life

Early Life

1960s

Early Life

1960s

1970s

Early Life

1960s

1980s

1980s

1980s

1990s

1980s

1980s

2000s

1980s

2000s

EARLY LIFE

1932

  • Born, Tessie Pasternak, in Chicago, IL

1933

  • Adopted by J. Earl and Minnie W. Feinberg and re-named Idelle Lois Feinberg 

1937-40

  • Moves to Wilmette, IL. and attends Central Grammar School
  • Visits Art Institute of Chicago and Field Museum every week, especially the Miniature Room and works of Edward Hopper

1941-46

  • Moves back to Chicago and attends Swift School. Father purchases first set of oil paints
  • Moves to Beverly Hills, CA
  • Attends Hawthorne Grammar School, Beverly Hills
  • Enters a program for young students under Ms. Frances Nugent, director of education at the Los Angeles County Museum
  • Takes private lessons with artist Elsye Palmer Payne

1946-50

  • Private art lessons with artist Theodore Lukits
  • Attends and graduates Beverly Hills High School. Art instructors of influence: Mrs. Lucille Roberts and Mrs. Marjorie Vie. Writes high school thesis on Edward Hopper and Jackson Pollock
  • Introduced by gallery owner Frank Perls to Edward G. Robinson. Views first Cezanne painting at his home
  • Studies with Millard Sheets at Oatis School and takes figurative classes at Chinouard Art Institute
  • Writes letter to Isabel Bishop (featured on a cover of American Artist magazine and first contemporary woman artist known to Idelle) stating her admiration for her work
  • Enters Scholastic Art Awards; awarded regional and national Gold Keys; enters many juried shows
  • Carmel Art Association, 1st prize, Carmel, CA
  • The Marquis Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA (juried show): 3rd prize
  • Attends Scripps College, Claremont, CA on a Scholastic Art Award and studies with Henry Lee McFee and (informally) Millard Sheets. 

The 50s

1950-51

  • Exhibits figurative imagery in group show at Scripps
  • Visits the Metropolitan Museum, the Frick Collection, and others on first trip to NYC
  • Attends UCLA and studies with: William Brice, Jan Stussy, Fredrick Wright, S. McDonald Wright, Gibson Danes, Karl Vith, Laura Anderson, and Tony Rosenthal; occasional private critiques from Rico Lebrun
  • Shares studio off San Vicente Blvd, Brentwood, CA, with Craig Kauffman. Walter Hopps sleeps in the back of studio
  • Takes a drawing class at Arts Center with Mary Vartikian
  • Awarded student teaching assistantship

1953-55

  • Attends Aspen Design Conference Aspen, Colorado. Participants include Herbert Bayer, Harry Bertoia, S. I. Hayakaw, Victor Gruen, and Arthur Drexler

1956

  • Receives MA degree from UCLA. Solo show, thesis on Odilon Redon, and oral exams completed
  • Receives Califonia teaching certificate
  • Student teaches at Los Angeles High School and Emerson Junior High School.

1957

  • Drawing, Observation of Sound, included in show Recent Drawings U.S.A. at the Museum of Modern Art, a competition juried by Bill Lieberman and Elaine Johnson. Gertrude Mellon purchases drawing
  • Second visit to NYC to view drawing at MoMA accompanied by portfolio of drawings to try to secure gallery affiliation. First night in NYC, baby-sat Mark Rothko's daughter Kate. As he walks Idelle to her boarding house, Rothko suggests galleries to contact
  • Remains in NYC, paints and takes temporary office jobs in New York
  • The art historian, Frederick Wight, writes a letter about Idelle's work to Alfred Barr 
  • Sam Hunter arranges for her to meet Horst Janson, who likes the work but says he doesn't include women painters in his books
  • Shows portfolio of drawings to Charles Allen, owner of the Allen Gallery. He indicates his policy of not showing women
  • Marries Julian L. Weber. Lives in Brooklyn Heights and uses living room as studio
  • Awarded 3rd prize in Bodley Gallery juried show; Andy Warhol also wins a prize
  • Included in New Talent U.S.A. issue of Art in America
  • Included in 152 Annual Exhibition of Watercolors, Prints, Drawings at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (juried show) and 38th Annual Jury Exhibition at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts; awarded Century Foundation Award
  • Charcoal drawing included in American Federation of Arts traveling exhibit
  • Illustrations commissioned by Scholastic and Esquire magazines
  • Attends an illustration and design class taught by Alexander Lieberman at School of Visual Arts
  • Requests to audit Robert Motherwell’s class at Hunter College, denied by the artist, who stated he believed that married women with children should not audit classes because they would not continue painting

1958

  • Son, Jonathan Todd Weber, born
  • Attends classes at Brooklyn Museum of Art
  • Exhibits early paintings in Brooklyn Museum Show. Jurors: Ruben Tam and G. Peck
  • Attends Art Students League and works with Theodore Stamos (whose assistant was Ralph Humphries). Also, took classes with Robert Beverly Hale. Investigated color, by making gray, thickly painted, impasto, abstract expressionist paintings. Created silhouette drawings and sketches of nudes and business men
  • Spends part of summer, and subsequent summers, in Santa Monica, CA 
  • Rents a studio at Ovington Building in Brooklyn Heights. 

1959

  • Steven Raditch, director of Widdifield Gallery, visits studio; exhibits Idelle in group drawing show
  • Tibor de Nagy visits studio and suggests contacting J. Meyers the following fall
  • Included in juried shows in NYC: City Center Group Show; Art Directions Gallery group show; and NY Art Students' League show

The 60s

1962

  • Danny Robbins, assistant curator at the Guggenheim, buys Cherubs/silhouettes and What's Big, Black, and Blue? 
  • Takes work to Martha Jackson and John Weber (no relation), who suggests showing silhouettes to Ivan Karp at Castelli, and Robert Elkon. John Weber sends John Gruen to review the work. John Weber would eventually become the director of Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles and include Idelle's work in exhibitions
  • Ivan Karp views work and returns a second time with Alan Solomon for a studio visit. Solomon responds favorably to the work
  • Danny Robbins shows black and white photos to Dick Bellamy in June, who suggests that he might show her work in the next season
  • Ivan Karp suggests starting an artists’ co-op gallery. Some artists included on the original list were Dan Flavin, Cora Ward, Ralph Ortiz, and Don Judd. Ivan suggests that the group visit other artists for possible inclusion in the coop.
  • Shown Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol's first paintings by Karp, who also introduces Weber to Lichtenstein, Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Jim Rosenquist. Most artists meet at Castelli Gallery for various show openings.
  • Beginning of friendships with Yayoi Kusuma, Lucas Samaras, Claes and Patti Oldendberg, and Steve Antonakos
  • Art historian Peter Seltz visits Ovington Studio
  • Bertha Schaefer visits Ovington Studio and takes three silhouette paintings with her
  • Signs with Bertha Schaefer Gallery in July

1963

  • Solo show at Bertha Schaefer Gallery of silhouette paintings in early January. Albright-Knox Museum purchases Reflection (1962)
  • Introduced to Lawrence Alloway by Danny Robbins
  • Rents studio on Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
  • Visits Ivan Karp in Provincetown, MA. Shows a piece in Ivan's first OK Harris Gallery, Provincetown 
  • Visits Agnes Martin at her cold-water walkup flat at Coentis Slip and purchases one of Martin's small watercolors. Martin gives Weber a 5” ruler for the background squares for the silhouette-figures painting in progress
  • Trades art work with Richard Artschwager
  • Portrait (1962) exhibited as part of the Pop Art, U.S.A. exhibit at the Oakland Art Museum, curated by John Coplans
  • Blue Monday Diptych (1962) exhibited as part of the Pop Goes the Easel exhibit at the Houston Contemporary Arts Museum, curated by Douglas MacAgy. The piece was purchased by John Murchison
  • Attends Allan Kaprow's TREE Happening

1964

  • Daughter, Suzanne Weber, born
  • Starts to keep a journal of studio time.
  • Invitation from Ivan Karp to the George Sugarman party at Al Held's loft celebrating Sugarman's Guggenheim award. Sugarman has used all his grant money to throw the party
  • Meets Barnett Newman
  • Second solo show at Bertha Schaefer of business men silhouettes.Following this exhibit, Idelle and Bertha Schaefer will not be able to agree on direction for a subsequent exhibit. It will be eight year until Idelle's next solo show (at Hundred Acres Gallery)
  • Moves residence to Livingston Street in Brooklyn Heights
  • Kiss Box (a plastic box filled with Hershey Kisses) exhibited in the Box Show at Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles. This piece was later exhibited at the Rhode Island School of Design Galleries and destroyed while being returned
  • Ben Casey Drawing (1962) exhibited in American Drawings at the Guggenheim, curated by Lawrence Alloway
  • Halloween party at Livingson Street apartment. Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein dress as Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, Julian dresses as Samaras, and Patti Mucha Oldenberg is in a baseball suit with a long, soft-sculpture bat made by the Oldenbergs

1965

  • Travels to England and Paris. Meets the Karps in Paris. After this trip, increases use of photographs and drawings to develop source material for future work
  • Rents studio in office building on Fulton Street, Brooklyn
  • Geometric Painter at Home (1963) exhibited in Dwan Gallery's Arena of Love
  • Hearts (1964) is shown in the New American Realism exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum, curated by Martin Carey
  • Munchkins I, II, III (1964) shown as part of Pop Art and the American Tradition exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Center, curated by Tracy Atkinson


1966

  • Begins to sketch and develop ideas and models for large scale Plexiglas silhouettes. Has conversation with Steve Antonakos about neon
  • Discusses idea of plastic silhouette cut-out exhibition with Bertha Schaefer. Schaefer dismisses the idea.
  • Travels to Italy, driving south from Milan to Rome

1967

  • Joins EAT (Experiments in Art and Technology) and attends all of their lectures. Meets Billy Kluver
  • Begins to trade work time with the model maker, Ed Geiger. He assists with 3-D Plexiglas silhouette wall sculptures
  • Returns to easel painting, starting with a series of small paintings of New York storefronts from slides taken from first days in NYC. Works on both silhouettes and realists paintings
  • Travels to Greece

1968

  • Shows Ivan Karp work on New York forefront paintings. He encourages her to continue with this subject matter.
  • Travels to Spain
  • See Richard Estes first exhibit and feels an instant kinship with his work and the new direction her painting has taken

1969

  • Purchases and moves to brownstone townhouse at 35 Sidney Place in Brooklyn Heights. Studio is on top floor
  • Trades silhouette fan with Roy Lichtenstein for his Sunrise metal multiple

The 70s

1970

  • Continues to work on silhouette images, including Lever Building II, which will later be acquired by the Whitney Museum, whilst also painting Photorealist oils and watercolors of storefronts and fruit stands
  • Completes series of Business man plastic cubes, some of which will later be acquired by the Museum of Modern Art

1972

  • Travels to Israel, Istanbul, and Prague

1973-77

  • Joins Ivan Karp's Hundred Acres Gallery when Barbara Toll is director
  • Solo show at Hundred Acres of fruit-stand paintings. Doris and Charles Saatchi purchases a painting from this show
  • Work on fruit-stand paintings as well as some trash and litter
  • Accepts position teaching graduate drawing and painting at NYU
  • Forms friendships with Ralph and Shana Goings, Richard and Darlene McLean, John and Jean Salt, John Baeder, Richard Estes, John and Jane Clarke, Bob and Jane Cottingham, Duane and Liz Hanson, and John DeAndrea 

1977

  • Travels to Greece and Crete
  • Solo show at Hundred Acres of trash and litter. 

1978

  • Joins OK Harris Gallery after Hundred Acres Gallery closes
  • Works on edition of etchings of trash as subject matter

1979

  • Moves residence and studio to a loft on West Broadway, NYC
  • Solo show at OK Harris of trash paintings.
  • Travels to St. Martin in the Caribbean. Watercolors of resort scenes

The 80s

1982

  • Travels to Bermuda and Tortola, British Virgin Islands, to visit John and Jane Clem Clarke
  • Solo show at OK Harris of resort pieces

1983

  • Leaves OK Harris and joins Ruth Siegel Gallery
  • Begins work focusing on foliage, flower work, mirror images, and architectural elements
  • Trip to Japan: Kyoto, Tokyo, Okayama, Kirishiki. Travels to Hong Kong and Bali, Indonesia

1984

  • Trip to France—Giverney, Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomt, Villandry, Fontainebleu, Barbizon, and the Bagatelle in Paris—forms the basis for solo show at Ruth Siegel Gallery: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1982-1983, French gardens
  • Summers in Quogue, NY

1985

  • Solo show at Ruth Siegel Gallery: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1984-1985, grass, pebbles, water paintings

1986

  • Solo show at Arts Club of Chicago: Painting and Works on Paper,1982-1985 -  garden and flower pictures

1989-92

  • Travels to England. Summers in Watermill, NY
  • Taught classes at Art Barge in Amagansett, NY 
  • Leaves Ruth Siegel Gallery and joins Anthony Ralph Gallery

1989

  • Solo show at Anthony Ralph Gallery, Botanical References - flower watercolors and drawings
  • Appointed assistant professor of art at Harvard University.

The 90s

1990

  • Taught print class at Harvard and worked on monotypes. Interest in poetry is renewed 
  • Introduced to Garner Tulis by Australian artist, Jan Senbergs. Landscape series with Tullis
  • Summers in Watermill, NY
  • Solo show at Anthony Ralph Gallery: East End Paintings - grass paintings and trash paintings 

1992

  • Joins Schmidt-Bingham Gallery
  • Solo shows at Schmidt-Bingham in NYC; Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago; Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe; and Colorado State College

1995

  • Workshop with Richard Tullis in Santa Barbara, C
  • Solo show: Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA
  • Becomes artist-in-residence and teaches at Melbourne University, Victorian School of the Arts (VSA), Australia. Sketches and photographs New Zealand, Australian outback, Great Barrier Reef, and treks to Ayers Rock
  • Solo show at VSA: First Shots: Idelle Weber- landscape monotypes
  • Develops serious allergy to almost all solvents. Stops working in oils

1996

  • Head Room installation of over 500 heads installed at the Contemporary Gallery at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, NY
  • Grandchild, Carlo Weber, born

1997

  • Solo show at Schmidt-Bingham, NYC: Shells

1998

  • Summers in Rhinebeck, NY
  • Solo show at Schmidt-Binghmam: Trees

The 00s

2001

  • Witnesses September 11th from West Broadway. Halts work for several months, needing to move because of air quality's effect on husband Julian's health
  • Begins work on first installation of over 500 paintings, drawings, watercolors, and prints of heads done between 1947 and 2002
  • 2002: Grandchild Bianca Maria Weber born. Elected for membership in the National Academy of Design. Receives Elin P. Speyer Award in membership exhibition. 

2002

  • Grandchild Bianca Maria Weber, born
  • Elected for membership in the National Academy of Design. Receives Elin P. Speyer Award in membership exhibition

2003

  • Solo show at Ruth Siegel Gallery: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1984-1985, grass, pebbles, water paintings

2003

  • Grandchild, Julia Duva, born
  • Serves as member of the National Academy Museum Council

2004

  • Head Room installation of over 500 heads installed at the Contemporary Gallery at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, NY
  • Grandchild, Carlo Weber, born

2010

  • One month’s summer residency, Acadia Art’s Foundation, Mount Desert Island, MN
  • Sid Sachs, curator, installs Beyond the Surface: Women and Pop Art 1958–1968, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 2010. 
  • Catherine Morris organizes Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968, at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, October 15, 2010–January 9, 2011.


Copyright © - Estate of Idelle Weber - All Rights Reserved.

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