Bernard Kirschenbaum

Kirschenbaum had a sizable and influential presence in early sixties and seventies downtown New York art community. He was an integral part of the early years of Park Place Gallery, 112 Greene Street Space, Sculpture Now Gallery, and Anarchitecture Group. He was one of the first artists to be shown at Paula Cooper Gallery.

Originally trained as a designer and architect, Kirschenbaum collaborated with Buckminster Fuller before turning to sculpture in the early 60s. In everything he did, he was chasing one of the most abstract of concepts: the “elegant solution,” a notion mostly known in mathematical circles, that attempts to solve a problem in the most efficient, refined, beautiful manner, to arrive at the ultimate form. The same succinct computations define the purest solutions in architecture, mathematics, and ultimately, computer science.

Kirschenbaum strived for the elegance and concision that motivated the ventures of modernists and minimalists alike. His was a unique perspective, though, especially in the emerging movement of geometric abstract object making. From the outset, the calculative complexities of Kirschenbaum’s architectural work informed his exploration of shapes, space, and patterns. It led him to see and define such forms as topographic surfaces, not unlike today’s computer modeling programs.

Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery