Irving Petlin

Irving Petlin (December 17, 1934 – September 1, 2018) was an American artist and painter renowned for his mastery of the pastel medium and collaborations with other artists (including Mark di Suvero and Leon Golub) and for his work in the "series form" in which he employed the raw materials of pastel, oil paint and unprimed linen, and found inspiration in the work of writers and poets including Primo Levi, Bruno Schulz, Paul Celan, Michael Palmer and Edmond Jabès.

Petlin attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1953 to 1956, where he received his BFA during the height of the Chicago Imagist movement. Petlin was awarded a fellowship at Yale, where he studied under Josef Albers and earned his MFA in 1960. Petlin taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Cooper Union in New York, as well as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He lived in Paris, New York and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Petlin died of liver cancer in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts on September 1, 2018, at the age of 83.

Selected exhibitions

2014 "The Still Open Case of Irving Petlin". Kent Fine Art, New York 2014 "Paris Show": Galerie Jacques Leegenhoek 2012 Irving Petlin: Storms: After Redon. Kent Fine Art, New York 2010 Irving Petlin: Major Paintings, 1979-2009. Kent Gallery, New York 2007 Orpheus, Pastels. Galerie Ditesheim, FIAC, Paris 2006 Este Mundo. Kent Gallery, New York 2002 Irving Petlin. Galerie Krugier-Ditesheim Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland 2001 Out of the Shadows. School of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston 1998 A Tribute to Meyer Schapiro. Jan Krugier Gallery, New York 1997 Le Monde D’Edmond Jabes, Pastels. Krugier-Ditesheim Art Contemporain, Geneva 1996 Paris is White. Kent Gallery, New York 1995 Irving Petlin: 1955-1995, Disegni nacosti. Studio d’ Arte Recalcati, Turin, Italy 1993 Swiat Brunona Shulza. Galerie Kordegarda, Varsovie, Poland 1992 Memories Drawn from Bruno Schulz and Others. Kent Gallery, New York 1990 Israel in Egypt. Kent Fine Art, New York 1990 The Periodic Table. Gallery 400, University of Chicago, IL 1990 Chagall to Kitaj: Jewish Experience in 20th Century Art. Barbican Art Gallery London, England 1989 A Different War: Vietnam in Art. Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA. Curated by Lucy Lippard. 1988 Pastels 1961-1987. Kent Fine Art, New York, NY

1987 Weisswald. Kent Fine Art, New York 1982 Irving Petlin: Recent Paintings and Pastels. Marlborough Fine Art, London, UK 1982 The Venice Biennale, Italian Pavilion, Venice, Italy 1981 Drawings from the Studio, 1972-1981. University of California, Santa Cruz 1980 Irving Petlin, Pastels. Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris 1978 Rubbings (Large Paintings, Small Pastels). Neuberger Museum-SUNY, Purchase, NY & Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, Il 1977 Galleria Bergamini, Milan, Italy 1974 Documenta, Torino, Italy 1973 Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum New York, NY 1972 Galleria Bergamini, Milan, Italy 1968 Irving Petlin: Opere recent. Galleria Il Fante Di Spade, Rome, Italy 1967 Odyssia Gallery, New York 1966 Rolf Nelson Gallery, Los Angeles 1965 Petlin Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium 1964 American Show, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 1963 Petlin: Peintures 1962-1963. Galerie du Dragon, Paris, France 1961 Paris Biennal, American Section. Paris, France 1960 Petlin, Galerie du Dragon, Paris, France 1958 Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1956 Cliffdweller Gallery, Chicago, IL 1954 Exhibition Momentum. Chicago, IL 1953-56 Art Institute, Chicago, IL