A Gift for Book Arts
The UMM Book Arts gallery has received a generous gift from Charles Russell, an English professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a trustee of the Stella Waitzkin Memorial Library Trust, of a cast resin sculpture from the estate of Ms. Waitzkin.
A friend and colleague of artists Hans Hoffman and Willem de Kooning, Ms. Waitzkin was well known for her interpretive sculptures cast from molds made from books and other found objects, said UMM's Bernie Vinzani, gallery curator and a book arts professor. "Ms. Waitzkin used this medium effectively to translate the ideas and feelings of the written word into visual expression and language," he added.
The artist was exhibited early on in the book arts movement at the Center for the Book Arts in New York City with such book arts notables as Douglass Morse Howell, Claire Van Vliet, Hedi Kyle, and Gary Frost.
Her works are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Walker Art Center, the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and the Jewish Museum.
UMM now joins other academic institutions in having one of her works in its permanent collection, Vinzani noted.
