NEW YORK, NY.- FreedmanArt and the Jules Olitski family present Olitski Visions at Tower 49, 12 East 49th Street, now extended through August 2014. On Wednesday, July 23, 5:30pm 8:00pm, Ai Kato, Art Director, Gallery at Tower 49, will host a summer reception in celebration of the installation, in the main lobby at Tower 49.
The installation at Tower 49® offers the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishment of the artist Jules Olitski in various ways. Works drawn from mid-career (1975-1982) hang eight feet above the ground in the East lobby, offering a new perspective on his signature style. They are impressive in the natural light available in this block through public space.
The works are drawn from the Olitski Family Collection and also include two sculptures. Although the sculpture is less well known, these works present for our discovery an original and fresh vocabulary unique to modernist sculpture and feel as pertinent to that conversation today as they did in 1968 and 1976. The monumental "No. 7" (1968), spanning 14 feet, is one out of the series that was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in 1969 under the curatorship of Henry Geldzahler. This featured solo exhibition of Olitskis sculpture was the first monographic exhibition given to a living American artist at the Museum. The painting hanging to the left of the sculpture, "Tut Yellow" (1965), is an iconic Spray that informs the color-thinking so poignantly declared in the sculpture three years later. Another large sculpture included, "Ur Original" (1976), of Cor-Ten steel and spanning 12 feet in diameter, is placed on the 49th Street plaza and is shown here publicly for the first time. These two works hint at the artists accomplishment as a sculptor and will be an important revelation to many who are more familiar with the paintings. This is truly a valuable contribution that Tower 49® offers. Additionally, in the Sky Lobby on the 24th floor, four works from Olitskis last period are prominently displayed.