Michael Gitlin

Michael Gitlin studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Pratt Institute and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is painting. Employment is recorded with University of California, Davis, Columbia University and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Work by Michael Gitlin is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel Museum, Print Collection and Museum Ludwig. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship.

• Name — Michael Gitlin מיכאל גיטלין • Born — 1943 • Birthplace — Cape Town, South Africa • Known for — Sculptor • Training — Pratt Institute, New York, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design • Movement — Israeli art

Michael Gitlin's family emigrated from South Africa to Israel in 1948. Gitlin received his BA in English Literature and Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1967). He simultaneously studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, graduating in 1967. Gitlin moved to New York City in 1970 and received an MFA from Pratt Institute (1972). His first museum show was at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 1977. That same year, his work was exhibited at the Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Gitlin was represented by the Schmela Gallery in Düsseldorf and works of his were acquired by such institutions as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Gugghenheim Museum. In the 1980s, Gitlin taught sculpture at the Parsons School of Design, Columbia University, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, and the University of California, Davis. Gitlin's one-person museum shows have included: the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1977); the ICC Antwerp (1980); Exit Art, New York (1985); Kunstraum Munchen (1986); Bonn Kunstverein (1988); Kunsthalle Mannheim (1989); Carnegie Mellon Art Gallery (1989); Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (1991). Gitlin is a member of the generation of Post-Minimalist artists working in Manhattan and Europe in the early 1970s that included Gordon Matta-Clark, Benni Efrat, Joel Shapiro, Joshua Neustein, Robert Grosvenor, Nahum Tevet, and Ulrich Rückriem, among others. Gitlin's work can be characterized as abstract and reductive. He began his career working three-dimensionally, first with paper and later with wood, using paper as a medium rather than a support. His sculptures are mostly wall pieces, which depend on architecture for their physical and contextual support. In a 1996 catalogue for a show at Katrin Rabus Gallery in Bremen, Germany, Barry Schwabsky describes Gitlin's work as "characterized above all by its restlessness [...]. The object in crisis – for Gitlin at least, and perhaps only for him, such is the risk of the artist – implicates the subject of sculpture more than its means. For the sculptor, there is the object and there is the space it inhabits, and these must have a determinate relationship. This relationship is perhaps the true subject of the work." In recent years, Gitlin has worked with steel wool, copper wire, foam, and black spandex. Drawing too has always been a demanding part of Gitlin's project.

• Illustration — Ohne Titel • M.F.A, Pratt Institute, New York, 1970–1972 • Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1964–1967 • Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Academy, Jerusalem, 1963–1967

Michael Gitlin was born on 1 January 1943 in Cape Town. Gitlin held the nationality of South Africa and Israel. Gitlin was educated at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Pratt Institute and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Gitlin worked as sculptor, painter, university teacher and printmaker. Gitlin was employed by University of California, Davis, Columbia University and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Gitlin worked in English.

• Columbia University, 1987 • Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Academy, Jerusalem, 1977–1978 and 1985 • Parsons School of Design, New York, 1976–1977 and 1981–1984 • New School, New York, 1973–1974 • Pratt Institute, New York, 1971–1972

Gitlin taught, and is recorded as university teacher. The work is documented at University of California, Davis, Columbia University and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.

British Museum, London Brooklyn Museum, New York Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Haifa Museum of Modern Art, Haifa, Israel Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. Leopold Hoesch Museum, Duren, Germany Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Jewish Museum, New York Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany Kunstverein Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt, Germany Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany Marl Sculpture Museum, Marl, Germany MUSMA, Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, Matera, Italy Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany MOMA Museum of Modern Art, New York/> New York Public Library, New York Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany Städtische Galerie, Erlangen, Germany Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel Wilhelm-Hack- Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg, Germany