NEW YORK, NY.- FreedmanArt is presenting Art in the Making; an exhibition honoring art, the history of whose making is part of its meaning, with over twenty artists included. Art in the Making opened Thursday, October 30.

“Indeed, whatever exists in the universe, whether in essence, in act, or in the imagination, the painter has first in his mind and then in his hands.” —Leonardo da Vinci1

In a time of constant change and advances in the methods of “making,” this exhibition hopes to provide a lens into time-honored art institutions, as triggered by the overlapping of the 50th anniversary of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture, and the 140th anniversary of The Art Students League of New York. This brings us to appreciate original and early approaches to teaching, learning, and making; as relevant today as in decades and centuries gone by.

The exhibition shows an extensive series of “after” drawings - from Caravaggio to Koons - by Kit White from the 2011, MIT Press publication: 101 Things to Learn in Art School. Kit White is an artist who also teaches at Pratt Institute, which recently marked its 125th anniversary.

Art in the Making includes works of art by many of the most well recognized painters, who have studied or taught at these long-standing teaching institutions. The artist alumni included in our exhibition are: Milton Avery, Thomas Hart Benton, Lee Bontecou, Helen Frankenthaler, Stephen Greene, Philip Guston, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Alfred Leslie, Jackson Pollock, Charles Pollock, David Smith, and others. For those artists who continue to actively make art and as well commit to the teaching of it, we are pleased to include works by Bill Jensen, Knox Martin, Graham Nickson, Larry Poons, William Scharf, and Kit White.

The exhibition honors the commitment of these institutions, their dedication to the principles inherent in the “making of art.” Their mission, as evidenced by the artists over the course of time, engages with the “making” of art; emphasizing touch of the human hand, most certainly, touching the human spirit.

1 Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), quoted in Looking at Modern Painting, 1957, frontice.