?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
HERBERT FERBER Study for Williams V.
Watercolor on paper, 1977. 500x630 mm; 19 1/2x24 3/4 inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower right recto.
Ex-collection private collection, New York.
The current work is a study for Ferber's (1906-1991) sculpture series titled Williams, which the artist executed from circa 1976. In this series, Ferber used flattened vertical pylons so that the vertical linear elements would not be immediately apparent. In this way, the center horizontal forms appear as if they are floating with hidden means of support.
Ferber, born Herbert Ferber Silver, began his fine art studies at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, New York while simultaneously training in dentistry. Ferber opened his own dentistry practice in 1934 and continued his artistic pursuits at the National Academy of Design. He had a broad range of interests including philosophy and was well-traveled throughout Europe and Central America.
Influenced by the modernist artist William Zorach (1887-1966, see lots 61-63), Ferber used the direct-carving process in creating his sculptures. The majority of his earlier works were carved in wood before he moved towards raw materials, cast metal and eventually to welding. Ferber's sculptural forms reference his travel experiences; influenced by medieval French architecture, African and Pre-Columbian sculpture. His later work ranged from abstract, calligraphic forms to his self-contained cage structures of the 1960s. These structures are a departure from Surrealism with an imposing stature though seemingly weightless and unburdened. With a focus on the experience of the viewer and their relationship to their surroundings, Ferber created one of the first large-scale indoor installations, A Sculpture as Environment for the Whitney Museum in 1961.
A realized brass sculpture from the Williams series, Williams 2B, sold Christie's East, New York, November 17, 1992, lot 227.
