Herbert Ferber
- Introduction
- Herbert Ferber (born Herbert Ferber Silvers, April 30, 1906 – August 20, 1991) was an American sculptor and painter, born in New York City. He began his independent artistic studies in New York in 1926 at evening classes at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, while attending Columbia University Dental School. In 1930, he attended the National Academy of Design, and that summer he was awarded a scholarship to work at The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in Oyster Bay, New York. He also began part-time work as a dentist. Impressed by African sculpture, he purchased his first piece of African art in 1931. Ferber received his dentistry degree in 1930, and, until the 1950s, he maintained two careers, as Abstract expressionist sculptor and dentist. In 1936, Ferber became a member of the Artists Union and attended the first American Artists' Congress.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 Sculpture as Environment exhibition (1961), 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. He died in 1991 in North Egremont, Massachusetts. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, New York), the Cantor Arts Center (Stanford University, Palo Alto, California), the Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, Texas), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D. C.), the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase College, Purchase, New York), the Newark Museum (Newark, New Jersey), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Saint Louis Art Museum (St. Louis, Missouri), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City), the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Connecticut), the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection (Albany, New York), and The Jewish Museum (New York) are among the public collections holding works by Herbert Ferber.
- Wikidata
- Q765387
- Nationality
- American
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Painter, Sculptor
- Names
- Herbert Ferber, Herbert Ferber Silvers, Herbert Silvers
- Ulan
- 500068518
Exhibitions
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If Everything Is Sculpture Why Make Sculpture? Artist’s Choice: Peter Fischli
June 12, 2018–
May 10, 2019 MoMA
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Abstract Expressionist New York
October 3, 2010–
April 25, 2011 MoMA
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The Surrealist Drawing: A Selection from the Collection
April 18–
September 3, 1991 MoMA
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Art of the Forties
February 24–
April 30, 1991 MoMA
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Sculptors’ Drawings
April 26–
September 2, 1986 MoMA
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Herbert Ferber has 20 exhibitionsonline.
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Herbert Ferber Study for Metamorphosis 1947
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Herbert Ferber Jackson Pollock 1949
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Herbert Ferber Study for Jackson Pollock 1949
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Herbert Ferber Study for Calligraph II 1949
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Herbert Ferber The Bow 1950
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Herbert Ferber Study for The Bow 1950
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Herbert Ferber He Is Not a Man 1950
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Herbert Ferber Untitled 1953
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Herbert Ferber Roof Sculpture with S Curve, II 1954 (cast 1969)
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Herbert Ferber Calligraph 1959
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Herbert Ferber Calligraph 1959
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Herbert Ferber Calligraph 1959
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Herbert Ferber Study for Sculpture as Environment: Developed from Roof Sculpture with S Curve, II 1960
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Herbert Ferber Study for Sculpture as Environment 1960
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Herbert Ferber Calligraph with Two Walls 1961
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Herbert Ferber Study after Calligraph in Cage with Cluster and Homage to Piranesi Series 1961
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Herbert Ferber Study for Cage Series May 23, 1962
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Herbert Ferber Homage to Piranesi, I 1962-63
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Herbert Ferber Untitled 1966
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