Jerome Witkin

Jerome Witkin (born September 13, 1939) is an American figurative artist whose paintings deal with political, social and cultural themes, along with serious portraiture that melds the sitter's social position with a speaking likeness that reveals inner character. Witkin has been succinctly characterized as "a virtuoso figurative painter whose work mixes elements of the old masters, social realism and Abstract Expressionism ..."

Biography Witkin was born in Brooklyn, New York, the twin brother of photographer Joel Peter Witkin.

Artwork Witkin's work can be thought of as an interrelationship of three bold explorations: The creation of realistic pictorial form with painterly gestures strongly influenced by his desire to absorb and surmount abstract expressionism. As such, his brush strokes and constructed forms are highly original and worthy of study in themselves. The deep implications of the death of his father, which induced Witkin to explore mortality and the underlying reality of personal and social relationships, which is evident in his portraits and the characterizations in his narrative work. Visually complex "realist" denunciations of major human rights issues as embodied in themes of torture, assassination, AIDS, and the Holocaust. While significant elements of the global contemporary art scene seems fascinated with the relationship between art and fashion, Witkin worked on his Holocaust series for twenty three years, never rushing this serious exploration of the characters perpetrating and victimized by this horror.

Witkin's work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Uffizi, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum.

Personal life Witkin is the father of photographer Christian Witkin.