Artists Registry
New York NY United States
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Artist's Statement
Statement of Work
David Stern was born in Essen, Germany in 1956 and emigrated to the United States in 1995. He lives and works in New York City.
On Sept 11 2001, his studio was located one and a half blocks north of Canal Street. Thoroughly shaken by the events, and unable to continue his then current work, he observed the spontaneous reactions and gatherings of people in front of make shift memorials, fire stations and public squares. Subsequently he painted 'The Gatherings' in 2002, feeling that the attacks had challenged him to his artistic core.
The Gatherings was first exhibited in Stern’s one-artist show at Rosenberg & Kaufman Fine Art in New York from October 10 to November 15, 2002. That show was reviewed by Monica Strauss in an article entitled, "Re-Visiting Those Stunned Evenings after 9/11. David Stern Paints A Moment of Community in 'The Gatherings'," and appeared in the September 5, 2002 issue of the biweekly magazine AUFBAU, then published in New York. In that review, Strauss described Stern’s feelings and actions in New York after September 11. “For weeks Stern found himself unable to paint and spent a lot of time walking around the stricken city. And then an earlier experience offered a key to the new circumstances of the life around him. Just a week before the terrorist attacks, he had been in Maine and had gone to see a traditional Indian powwow celebrated by the Pasmaquoddy Indians of the Wabanaki tribes that once inhabited the entire North American eastern seaboard. Recollections of that spiritual circle came into his mind as he witnessed New Yorkers gathered around their homemade memorials, groups of candles, clusters of flowers in awkward community. The result was the series of paintings collectively called ”The Gatherings,” a response to the new urban necessity, however tenuous and however brief, to connect.”
The paintings were exhibited in the national traveling exhibition "David Stern: The American Years (1995-2007)" in 2008-2010.
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David Stern
born 1956 in Essen, Germany
lives and works in New York since 1995
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (Solo, except where noted)
2014 "Painted Faces", Curated by Mark Lewis. Henry Zarrow Center for Art and Education,
The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK (group, with Frank Auerbach and others)
2012 "Positionswechsel", Curated by Kirsten Freundl. BayWa Munich, Germany (group)
2011 Messineo Art Projects/Wyman Contemporary, NYC
2010 Messineo Art Projects/Wyman Contemporary, NYC (group)
2009 Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany
2009 Messineo Art Projects/Wyman Contemporary, NYC
2008-2010 "David Stern, The American Years", national travel exhibition curated by Karen Wilkin,
Yeshiva University Museum, New York; Alexander Hogue Gallery, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK,
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC
2006 "New American Figurative Art", Thomas Williams Fine Art, London, UK (with Nicholas Straube)
2005 "project 1740" presented by Claudia Carr, Starrett Lehigh, NYC
2004 Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC
2003 "Skin: Contemporary Views of the Body", Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art,
Jacksonville, FL (group, with Magdalena Abakanowicz, Tony Oursler and others)
2002 Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC
2002-03 "CorpoRealities. Contemporary Figurative Painting", Rollins College, Cornell Fine Arts Museum,
Winter Park, FL (group, with Eugène Leroy, Frank Auerbach and others )
2002 Spokane Falls Community College Art Gallery, Spokane, WA (group)
2001 Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC
2000 Louis Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC
1999 William Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, SC
1998 Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC
1998 7th Biennal National Drawing Invitational, The Arkansas Arts Center,
Little Rock (Arkansas) (group)
1998 Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany (group)
1997 Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC (group)
1997 Galerie Joachim Blueher, Cologne, Germany
1997 Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC (group)
1996 Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC
1996 Galerie Joachim Blüher, Cologne, Germany (group)
1996 Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany (group)
1995 Synagogue for the Arts, NYC
1995 Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany
1994 Kunstverein, Gütersloh, Germany
1994 National Jewish Museum, Washington, DC
1994 Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany
1994 Galerie X Sadie Bierl, Munich, Germany
1993 International Monetary Fund Art Forum, Washington, DC
1993 Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany
1992 Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
1992 Kunstsammlung, Universität Göttingen, Germany
1991 Galerie Welz, Salzburg, Austria
1991 Martin Ainscough Gallery, Liverpool, England
1989 Kölner Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany (group)
SELECTED EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
2008 David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008),
catalogue accompanying the national traveling exhibition curated by Karen Wilkin; New York:
Yeshiva University Museum; Tulsa, OK: Alexandre Hogue Gallery; Charleston, SC: The Halsey
Institute of Contemporary Art
1999 David Stern: Recent Paintings, exh. cat. New York: Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art
1994 David Stern, Identity and Relationship, exh. cat. Washington, DC: National Jewish Museum
1992 David Stern, Study for a Way, exh. cat. Budapest: Hungarian National Gallery
David Stern, Malerei, exh. cat. Göttingen (Germany): Kunstsammlung der Universität Göttingen
SELECTED ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS
2013 David Stern, “In the Beginning was a Drawing… (Thoughts on Drawing and Binary Code)” and
Chapter 14: “Black and White Magic by David Stern, New York, USA” in David Scott Leibowitz,
Mobile Digital Art. Using the iPad and iPhone as Creative Tools, 2013
2011 Thomas Ketelsen, “Skypieces or ‘Epiphanien des Zufalls’. David Sterns New Yorker Skizzen-
buch im Dresdner Kupferstich-Kabinett, in Dresden – New York. Zu Ehren des 90. Geburtstages
von Henry H. Arnhold, By Nina C. Ilgen and Martin Roth (Editors), Berlin and Munich 2011,
pp. 39-42
2009 Charles Ruas, “David Stern,” ARTnews, January 2009, p. 112
2008 Joel Silverstein, “David Stern at Yeshiva University Museum,” artcritical.com, December 2008
Teel Sale and Claudia Betti, Drawing. A Contemporary Approach, 6th edition, Belmont, CA 2008,
p. 34, no. 2.12
2007 Monica Strauss, “David Stern. Rituelle Gesten,” Aufbau, September 2007, p. 10
2006 The Flux of Experience, feature film by Fred Helm Film Group, narrated by Tsvi Blanchard
2005 The Artists Bluebook. 34,000 North American Artists. 16th Century to March 2005,
By Lonnie Pierson Dunbier (Editor), Scottsdale (Arizona), 2005, p. 479
2004 David Grosz, "Human Figures, Broken and Restored, In the Work of One Artist,"
Forward, March 19, 2004, p. 11
2003 Karen Wilkin, "At the Galleries," Partisan Review, Winter 2003, pp. 116-17
2002 Blake Eskin, “A Passion for Impasto,” ARTnews Summer 2002, pp. 122-124
Monica Strauss, "Revisiting those stunned evenings," Aufbau, September 2002
2001 Monica Strauss, "Figurative Paintings and Abstract Means. Paintings and Drawings by
David Stern at Rosenberg & Kaufman Fine Art," Aufbau 10 (May 10), 2001, p. 15
Mario Naves, “Waving to the 20th Century en Route to the 19th,” New York Observer, May 20
Karen Wilkin, "At the Galleries," Partisan Review, Summer 2001
2000 Lance Esplund, "David Stern at Rosenberg & Kaufman", Art in America, June 2000, pp. 124-25
1999 Mitchell Cohen, "David Stern's Cosmos", Dissent, Fall 1999, pp. 64-67
1998 Lance Esplund, "Working the Paint," Modern Painters, Spring 1998, pp. 116-18
Townsend Wolfe, "David Stern," in 7th Biennal National Drawing Invitational, exh. cat.
(Little Rock: The Arkansas Arts Center), pp. 57-59, nos. 38-43
1997 Hearne Pardee, "David Stern," ARTnews, January 1997, pp. 119-121
1996 Dominique Nahas, "David Stern," Review, October 1, 1996, p. 16
Jeanne C. Wilkinson, David Stern," Review, September 15, 1996, p. 28
1994 Rolf Birkholz, "Das Ringen der Geschlechter," Gütersloher Tagesblatt,
November 20, 1994, p. 994
"Ausstellungsrundgang," Tagesspiegel Berlin, November 5
C.J. "Tobende Farben," Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 7, 1994
1993 Christina Wendenburg, "Wie sich aus einem Krater Gesichter herausschälen,"
Berliner Morgenpost, February 2, 1993
Feature, Sonntagsgespräche with Karl L. Wolff, WDR Television
1992 Jürgen Kisters, "Vom Zauber der Erfahrung. Der Kölner Maler David Stern bereitet eine
Ausstellung in Budapest vor," Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, October 16
Peter Krüger-Lenz, "Aufgeworfen, schrundig. Malerei von David Stern in der
Uni-Kunstsammlung", Göttinger Tageblatt, March 1992
Cornel Wachter, "Die Schichten der Erscheinungen durchdringen."
Göttinger Tageblatt, March 11, 1992
1991 Jürgen Kisters, "David Stern – Portrait eines Künstlers," Kunst Köln, 4, 1991, pp. 34-37
Jürgen Kisters, "David Stern," Kunstforum, September 1991, p. 366
Werner Thuswaldner, „David Stern aus Köln in der Galerie Welz,“
Salzburger Nachrichten, September 20, 1991
1990 Wim Cox, Kölner Künstler im Portrait, Cologne, pp. 200-203
1989 Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, "Der Name der Freiheit. Ein Kölner Symposion zur 200-Jahr-Feier der
Französischen Revolution in der Kölner Philharmonie am 29. April 1989," KölnMusik Edition 1,
Köln, 1989, pp. 40-41
Künstler in Köln, Artothek der Stadtbücherei Köln, Cologne
1988 Feature, Aktuelle Stunde, WDR 3 Television
COLLECTIONS
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden, Germany
National Museum, Poznan, Poland
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Dresdner Bank, Köln, Germany
Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, Florida
Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, New York
Kunstsammlung, Universität Göttingen, Germany
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachussetts
Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
Shor Yoshuv Institute, Lawrence, New York
Yeshiva University Museum, New York
US Embassy, Vienna, Austria
Private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia