Current Exhibition - Towbin Museum Wing

Main Gallery | Towbin Museum | Solo Show |Founders Gallery | YES!!

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Shakespeare & Other Subjects:
Prints and Drawings by Milton Glaser
October 15, 2011- January 2, 2012

Milton Glaser Shakespeare Vanishes - African

Milton Glaser Coy Shakespeare

Milton Glaser receiving the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama

Milton Glaser Shakespeare Vanishes - Worms

Woodstock, NY: The Woodstock Artists Association and Museum is proud to present Shakespeare & Other Subjects: Drawings and Prints by Milton Glaser.
The exhibition will be on view from
October 15 – January 2, 2012.

Glaser was born in 1929 in New York City, and eventually became one of the most influential and prolific graphic designers in the world. As a young artist, he studied art at the Cooper Union in New York and then, through a Fulbright Scholarship, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. There, he was the student of Giorgio Morandi, the great Italian painter famous for his persistent paintings of bottles and other still lifes. Though most of Glaser’s work falls into the category of design, it is clear when considering his versatility that he has always seen the world through the eyes of a fine artist. 

The upcoming exhibition at WAAM showcases some of Glaser’s digital work from the last two years, along with a few works from past decades – selected and laid out by the artist himself. Included are his commercial posters and black on black giclée prints, the latter of which have only been shown at one other venue.  The focus of the exhibition is a series of portraits of William Shakespeare, exhibited for the first time ever here at WAAM. Hand drawn, scanned, and then digitally manipulated, each of Glaser’s portraits of Shakespeare has a different style, color palette, and attitude. Though Shakespeare is depicted very differently in each piece, the real star of these works is the wide range of approaches taken to create the images. Glaser works with the same subject, but each time with a novel line of attack, much in the way his teacher Giorgio Morandi presented fresh views of the same still life objects in multiple images.

In 1954, Glaser co-founded Pushpin Studios,
a forward-thinking, highly influential graphic design studio. In 1968, while still directing Pushpin, Glaser went on to found and New York Magazine with Clay Felker. Then, in 1974, he started his own design firm, Milton Glaser Inc. The work he does there includes print graphics as well as environmental and interior design of commercial offices, hotels, buildings, and restaurants. He lives between Woodstock and New York City with his wife Shirley.

Glaser’s most well known works include the “I Love New York” logo, his poster for Bob Dylan’s album of greatest hits, the Brooklyn Brewery logo, and more. He is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Smithsonian Institute, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, and Chase Manhattan Bank. In 2009, he was awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Barack Obama.

Exhibition and programs are supported by the
WAAM Founders Circle, other individual supporters and membership.