22 Sep Lynda Caspe – Biblical Reliefs and Cityscapes
On view September 22, 2013–January 5, 2014
Lynda Caspe began a series of relief sculptures inspired by familiar stories from the Bible in 2007 and has continued to create additional works in bronze as recently as the summer of 2013. Inspired by the style of early Italian Renaissance bronze reliefs, Caspe’s modernist practice is evident in the roughness of finish and emphasis on process. The stories she reinterprets through her work include, The Judgment of Solomon, Jacob and the Angel, Cain and Abel, The Binding of Isaac, Jonah and the Whale, Joseph in the Pit and The Pharaoh and his Army, among others. The exhibition in the Derfner Judaica Museum is comprised of the 12 reliefs in the series, related drawings and an example of one of Caspe’s wax maquettes.
Lynda Caspe, Street Scene, 2009, oil on canvas, 67 x 51 in.
A concurrent exhibition of 14 paintings in the Gilbert Pavilion Gallery includes a selection of the artist’s cityscapes. Most of the paintings offer roof top views painted from a window. The tightly packed buildings in a shallow space reflect the urban density. Unlike the grandeur of more typical skyline views, these compositions offer humble, yet familiar scenes. A resident of Tribeca, Caspe is fascinated with the downtown neighborhood’s quintessential rooftop architecture. The geometries unfold as rhythmic, pulsating color planes that capture the city’s energy and unique qualities of atmosphere, light and emotion.
About the Artist
Lynda Caspe was born and raised in New York City, and has lived in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan since 1974. She is a painter, sculptor and published poet. Caspe graduated from the University of Chicago in 1961 and earned an M.F.A. in painting at the University of Iowa in 1964. In 1964-1965, she studied printmaking with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris, and after returning to the U.S. she studied painting and sculpture at the New York Studio School with Esteban Vicente and George Spaventa. In 1969 she was a co-founder of the Bowery Gallery and was its director from 2001 to 2010.
Caspe’s work has been exhibited in one-person exhibitions at Sovereign/Santander Bank; Bowery Gallery; Gallery of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and other New York City galleries. She has also been included in group exhibitions at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; The Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art; Sideshow Gallery; Hudson Guild; SOHO20.
Lynda Caspe, The Binding of Isaac, 2007, bronze, 12 x 19 in.
Gallery; A.I.R. Gallery; Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors; Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery of The Art Students League of New York; Westbeth Gallery, and the Tribeca Synagogue for the Arts, among other venues in New York City. Her work has been shown internationally at Institute of Contemporary Art, London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo. Caspe was on the faculty of Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York from 1978-2013, and has also taught at Parsons School of Design, the University of Alberta, and The University of Chicago.
Lynda Caspe, The Story of Cain and Abel, 2007, bronze relief, 29 x 23 x 8 in.
Caspe is a member of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors and was its co-president in 2005 and 2006. She has been the recipient of grants from Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Professional Staff Congress, Union of the City University. She also received a New York State Creative Artist Public Service (CAPS) grant and a Yaddo Fellowship.
This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Featured image: Lynda Caspe, Cubes and Water Towers, 2009, oil on linen, 24 x 30 in.