Herbert Ferber

Herbert Ferber (1906 – 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionist, sculptor and painter, and a "driving force of the New York School."
Background.
Herbert Ferber Silvers was born on April 30, 1906, in New York City. In 1923, he began studies in both sciences and humanities at the College of the City of New York (now City College of New York or CCNY) from; in 1927, he received a BS from jointly from CCNY and Columbia University. In 1927, he took night classes in sculpture through 1930 at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design ("affiliated in a kind of loose way with the Beaux Arts in Paris," Ferber later recalled) and then studied for six months at the National Academy of Design. That summer, he that summer he was awarded a scholarship to work at The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in Oyster Bay, New York. In 1930, he graduated in oral and dental surgery at Columbia. 
Career.
Ferber practiced dentistry and taught part-time at the Columbia Dental School during the 1930s; he continued to sculpt and practice dentistry up through the 1950s. William Zorach and Julio Gonzales influenced Ferber (and Picasso, but Ferber himself also credited painter David McCosh: In 1931, Ferber sculpted in wood and stone. In 1935, he joined New York's Midtown Galleries. In 1936, he joined the Artists Union and took part in the first American Artists' Congress. During the 1930s, his works was "primarily figurative and imagistic," influenced in part by an interest in German expressionists as well as African and pre-Columbian sculpture. By the mid-1930s, Ferber found himself " very much disenchanted with the whole Communist movement." In 1938, he traveled to Europe and saw Romanesque sculpture. In 1940, he joined fellow anti-Stalinist artists (Ilya Bolotowsky, Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, Meyer Schapiro, David Smith, Bradley Walker Tomlin) in forming the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors as a spin-off of the Communist-aligned American Artists' Congress.
In 1940, Ferber changed his approach to sculpture from carving to gluing and doweling; he last worked in wood in 1944. Ferber came under the influence of Henry Moore. In 1945, Ferber began experimenting in steel-reinforced concrete, abstract sculpture, and metal-soldering. Starting in 1946, he associated with Abstract Expressionist painters, frequented Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century, and became more interested in Surrealism.
In the 1950s, Ferber began creating "roofed" and "caged" sculpture. In 1952, Ferber completed a commission for the facade of the Congregation B'nai Israel; the result was the relief sculpture "Titled And the bush was not consumed." In 1956, Ferber joined artists who protested a curvilinear slope of Frank Lloyd Wright's planned building for the Guggenheim Museum. Throughout the 1950s, Ferber lectured on and exhibited metal sculpture and site-specific sculpture. 
In 1961, for the Whitney Museum of American Art, he created one of the first indoor environmental installations, "Titled Sculpture as Environment," a fiberglass piece for an entire room with interior spaces to visit. His work as a teacher included visiting professorships at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1962–63), and Rutgers University, New Jersey (1965–67).
In the 1970s and 1980s, Ferber worked on large, abstract forms and also returned to painting as well as painted sculpture. 
In 1971, as guardian of Mark Rothko's daughter Kate, Ferber charged executors of the Mark Rothko estate of conspiring with the Marlborough Gallery to waste the estate's assets. An eight-month trial ended in October 1974, eventually leading to dismissal of executors and gallery, heavy fines, and appointment of Kate Rothko as executor. Remaining paintings went to her and brother Christopher Rothko; a foundation gave its share of the works to museums.
Personal life and death.
Ferber married Sonia Stirt in 1932, Ilse Falk in 1944, and Edith Popiel in 1967, a photographer.
In 1968, Ferber stated: Herbert Ferber died age on August 20, 1991, of cancer of the bile at his summer home in Egremont, Massachusetts.
Awards.
According to the Herbert Ferber Estate, awards to Ferber have included:
Commissions.
Ferber received numerous commissions for synagogues, e.g., a candelabrum and altar decoration for the chapel of Brandeis University. Other commissions include: a copper sculpture for the John F. Kennedy Office Building in Boston, an environmental sculpture for Rutgers University, and a steel sculpture for the American Dental Association Building in Chicago.
According to the Herbert Ferber Estate, commissions to Ferber have included:
Legacy.
In 1978, Ferber appeared in "Masters of Modern Sculpture", Part Three, by Michael Blackwood.
At his death in 1991, the "New York Times" said: In 2019, the "Wall Street Journal" noted: Ferber and his wife appear in accounts of New York circles, including "Writings on Art" by Mark Rothko (2006) and "The World in My Kitchen" (2006), written by Colette Rossant, whose husband was architect and painter James Rossant.
According to the "Oxford Reference Dictionary": 
Works.
Ferber's best-known sculptures are open, hollow forms in soldered and welded metal. While abstract, their titles and spiky forms often suggest forces in conflict. ('Labors of Hercules' is an example). By the mid-1950s, he began to create, what he called, roofed sculptures―some parts of which hung from the ceiling while other parts rose from the floor. These were followed by so-called cage works―large, boxy forms within which other forms were set. With , Ferber created an installation executed in fiberglass for a room at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, opening up the interior space of the work for the viewer to enter. In the 1970s, Ferber continued his exploration of abstract form, mostly in large-scale outdoor pieces.
Ferber's works have appeared the Metropolitan, the Modern, and Whitney museums in New York and in Europe. His longest-term art dealer was M. Knoedler & Co., who exhibited Ferber's last living show in September 1990.
Solo exhibitions:
According to the Herbert Ferber Estate, solo exhibitions have included:
Group exhibitions:
According to the Herbert Ferber Estate, group exhibitions have included:
Ferber's work also appeared at group exhibitions at the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition (1939), New York World's Fair (1940, 1964), the U.S. Pavilion at the World Fair in Brussels (1958), and the Seattle World's Fair (1962).
Permanent collections:
Public collections holding works by Herbert Ferber include:
Works online:
Books on Ferber: