Chaim Koppelman (1920 - 2009)
A Memorial Exhibition
May 27 — October 15, 2010

  We celebrate the art and life of Chaim Koppelman, artist, teacher, and Aesthetic Realism consultant, with an exhibition of works spanning seven decades—drawings and sculpture from the 1940s, and prints and pastels from the 1950s into the 21st century. Below are a selection of works from the exhibition.

A master of the art of printmaking, with an imagination at once original and universal, incisive and compassionate, serious and playful, Chaim Koppelman’s work has been related to Goya in his fearlessness in tackling the cruel, and to Redon in his sense of the mystery of things. He is distinguished in American art for the beauty and power of his work, and for his proudly expressed opinion of the truth and importance of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism.

In his work, Chaim Koppelman explored the relation of opposites—dark and light, sharpness and mystery, the classical and the wild. And in works as different as “Murdered, Vietnam” and “Gentleness,” his purpose was to show, through form, a beautiful resolution of good and evil.

Chaim Koppelman’s art will last, and with it, the meaning of his important, courageous, pioneering life.

                                                                                              ( text continues under images, click on them for larger size )

Early drawing, 1940s

At the Window, 1979, pastel,
24 ½ h x 19 w

In the Workshop, 1966, aquatint
17 ¾ x 11 7/8

Meeting, pastel

Vietnam, 1965, aquatint,
19 7/8 x 15 7/8

Early drawing , 1940s


Ecstasy at the Press, 1967, ink & sepia wash, 17 h x 14 w

Early work,1940s

Combat, 1958, aquatint

Cherry Tomatoes, pastel,
10 ½ x 14 ½

A printmaker equally at ease with experimental as well as traditional techniques, Chaim Kopplman brings a totally new concept to the field of graphic art. He is concerned with good and evil, with what he calls “the ethical drama of black and white.” Koppelman [is] an innovator, not only technically, but in the scope of his subject matter, the depth of his seeing. —Sylvan Cole, Director, Associated American Artists Gallery

He was brilliant, both in printmaking and painting. His work has a sense of darkness and light that is unique, and of what is going on in life in general—an observation, that is unusual and exciting, of what takes place between people. He was a very excellent graphic artist, with a very fine technique that varies from idea to idea. There was this profundity in him, and this sense of humanity. And it was developed through Aesthetic Realism. He was a vital force in the art community for many years. —Will Barnet, Artist

Chaim Koppelman has an outstanding sense of touch, and its rightness delights in changes of scale, as in the “etcher at the press” series....This sense of touch moves through rich aquatint grays and subtle bas-relief. ...Something from one century and something from another and something brand new all come together, as it turns out, at the right time on the right plate. He impressses his individuality on all this through a superb use of allegory, which serves as well to discipline his richness. —Art News

He has harnessed his skills and his unblinking imagery to the troubled, often controversial problems of our times, [as in] his embossed intaglio Murdered, Vietnam. Koppelman is not alone in his visual and partisan demands for humanistic values; nevertheless, he is one of the most eloquent. —Una Johnson, American Prints and Printmakers
                                                                                                                       [from the exhibition announcement]