“Peter Grippe: A Personal Vocabulary” Now on View at the Allentown Art Museum

ALLENTOWN, PA.- The Allentown Art Museum presents “Peter Grippe: A Personal Vocabulary” – on view now until November 14, 2010.

“Peter Grippe” highlights the work of New York artist Peter Grippe (1912–2002), a talented and inventive sculptor and printmaker, who worked and exhibited with many of the major artists of the mid-20th century. This will be the museum’s first exhibition of work by this American mid-century modernist and represents part of a substantial gift of Grippe’s art from Florence Grippe, the artist’s widow.

The exhibition includes a special selection of Grippe’s powerful and dramatic sculpture and some of his iconic works on paper. A special highlight is a presentation of the rare portfolio “21 Etchings and Poems,” a project initiated by Peter Grippe when he was director of the renowned Atelier 17 print workshop and is a result of nearly 10 years of work. The portfolio, published in 1960, is a noteworthy collaboration between the visual and literary arts and features the work of poets and artists such as Frank O’Hara, Dylan Thomas and Willem de Kooning. Each print includes a poem written in the author’s hand paired with imagery created by some of the leading artists of the time. It is considered a landmark of mid-20th century American print publishing and is unique in its inclusion of writers and artists from across the 1950s cultural spectrum.

Grippe was born in Buffalo, N.Y. and studied at the Albright-Knox Art School and the Art Institute of Buffalo. He taught at the Pratt Institute, Smith College, and served as the first professor of sculpture and graphics at Brandeis University. In addition, the artist taught at and eventually led Atelier 17 in New York, the highly influential print studio. Grippe’s work is included in a number of U.S. museums including: The Brooklyn Museum of Art; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; and Whitney Museum of Art, N.Y.