“Sculpture is used by me to express the life of man as a struggling interaction between himself and his environment. Sculpture itself is a part of this interplay.”[i]

“...what I am looking for is an unknown something that is real behind the concrete flux of immediate things. It is something like a religious quest for some final yet perhaps hopeless meaning largely guided by the spirit of a vision of reality as an objective, organic, empirical process subject to understanding in our time. It is a hunger for assimilating myself to something beyond myself, the surrounding world and cosmos. It is my harmony with what I sense is of today and the enduring and the eternal.”

Born in New York City in 1903, Seymour Lipton (1903-1986) grew up in a Bronx tenement at a time when much of the borough was still farmland. These rural surroundings enabled Lipton to explore the botanical and animal forms that would later become sources for his work. Lipton’s interest in the dialogue between artistic creation and natural phenomena was nurtured by a supportive family and cultivated through numerous visits to New York’s Museum of Natural History as well as its many botanical gardens and its zoos. In the early 1920s, with the encouragement of his family, Lipton studied electrical engineering at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and pursued a liberal arts education at City College. Ultimately, like fellow sculptor Herbert Ferber, Lipton became a dentist, receiving his degree from Columbia University in 1927. In the late 1920s, he began to explore sculpture, creating clay portraits of family members and friends.

In addition to providing him with financial security, dentistry gave Lipton a foundation in working with metal, a material he would later use in his artwork. In the early 1930s, though, Lipton’s primary sculptural medium was wood. Lipton led a comfortable life, but he was also aware of the economic and psychological devastation the Depression had caused New York. In response, he generally worked using direct carving techniques—a form of sculpting where the artist “finds” the sculpture within the wood in the process of carving it and without the use of models and maquettes. The immediacy of this practice enabled Lipton to create a rich, emotional and visual language with which to articulate the desperation of the downtrodden and the unwavering strength of the disenfranchised. In 1935, he exhibited one such early sculpture at the John Reed Club Gallery in New York, and three years later, ACA Gallery mounted Lipton’s first solo show, which featured these social-realist-inspired wooden works. In 1940, this largely self-taught artist began teaching sculpture at the New School for Social Research, a position he held until 1965.

In the 1940s, Lipton began to devote an increasing amount of time to his art, deviating from wood and working with brass, lead, and bronze. Choosing these metals for their visual simplicity, which he believed exemplified the universal heroism of the “everyman,” Lipton could also now explore various forms of abstraction. Lipton’s turn towards increasing abstraction in the 1940s allowed him to fully develop his metaphorical style, which in turn gave him a stronger lexicon for representing the horrors of World War II and questioning the ambiguities of human experience. He began his metal work with cast bronze sculptures, but, in 1946, he started welding sheet metal and lead. Lipton preferred welding because, as direct carving did with wood, this approach allowed “a more direct contact with the metal.”[ii] From this, Lipton developed the technique he would use for the remainder of his career: “He cut sheet metal, manipulated it to the desired shapes, then joined, soldered, or welded the pieces together. Next, he brazed a metal coating to the outside to produce a uniform texture.”[iii]

In 1950, Lipton arrived at his mature style of brazing on Monel metal. He also began to draw extensively, exploring the automatism that abstract expressionist painters were boasting at the time. Like contemporaries such as Jackson Pollock, Lipton was strongly influenced by Carl Jung’s work on the unconscious mind and the regenerative forces of nature. He translated these two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional maquettes that enabled him to revise his ideas before creating the final sculpture. The forms that Lipton produced during this period were often zoomorphic, exemplifying the tension between the souls of nature and the automatism of the machine.

In the years following the 1950s, Lipton’s optimism began to rise, and the size of his work grew in proportion. The oxyacetylene torch—invented during the Second

1923 
Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, NY
College of the City of New York, NY

1927 
Columbia University, NY (DDS)
 

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Bradbury Gallery, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AK
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Cantor Art Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Columbia University, New York, NY
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, DC
Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AR
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Didrichsen Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY
Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, WI
Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA
Flint Institute of Art, Flint, MI
Frederick R Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
Hammer Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville, NY
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
Iowa State University, Ames, IA
The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
Kykuit, The Rockefeller Estate, Pocantico Hills, NY
Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Muhlenberg, PA
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Mulhenberg College, Allentown, PA
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Utica, NY
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY
New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, CT
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
New School for Social Research, New York, NY
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK
Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
San José Museum of Art, San José, CA
Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
São Paulo Museum, São Paulo, Brazil
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico
Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS
University of Tucson, Tucson, AZ
University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Williams College Museum of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT

1938 
ACA Gallery, New York, NY

1943 
Seymour Lipton: Sculpture, Galerie St. Etienne, New York, NY
Warsaw, Puma Gallery, New York, NY

1948 
Seymour Lipton, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY; 1950, 52, 54, 58, 61

1951 
American University, Washington, DC

1955 
Seymour Lipton, New Paltz College, University Teachers College, New Paltz, NY

1956 
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
Museé Rodin, Paris, France

1957 
São Paulo Biennale, São Paulo, Brazil

1958 
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY
Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

1961 
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY
Rensselaer Museum, Troy, NY

1962 
Seymour Lipton Drawings/Small Sculpture, Hodges/Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Seymour Lipton, Argus Gallery, Madison, NJ

1964 
Seymour Lipton, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

1965 
Seymour Lipton, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, NY

1969 
Seymour Lipton: Decade of Recent Work, Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, WI

1971 
Seymour Lipton: Recent Works, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY
Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

1972 
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

1973 
Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
Seymour Lipton: Recent Sculpture 1964-73, Herbert E. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca,  NY

1974 
Seymour Lipton, Marlborough Galerie AG, Zurich, Switzerland
Seymour Lipton, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY

1976 
Seymour Lipton: Recent Works, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY 

1978
Seymour Lipton: Aspects of Sculpture, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

1979 
Seymour Lipton – Retrospective: Drawings and Sculpture, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

1982 
Seymour Lipton Sculpture, The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; Greenville County Museum of Art,
Greenville, SC; Cheekwood Fine Arts Center, Nashville, TN; Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO;
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL

1983 
Hodges/Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC

1984
Seymour Lipton: Sculpture, Hillwood Art Gallery, Greenvale, NY; Tyler Art Gallery, Oswego, NY; Flint  Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; University Art Gallery, Macomb, IL; Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX; University Art Collections, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Laumier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MI; Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI; Newcomb  College, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

1986 
Seymour Lipton: Drawings, Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York, NY

1988 
Seymour Lipton: A Retrospective, Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

1991 
Seymour Lipton: Major Late Sculpture, Babcock Galleries, New York, NY

1993 
Seymour Lipton: The First Decade, Babcock Galleries, New York, NY

1995 
Seymour Lipton: Sculptures, Maquettes and Drawings, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY

1999
Seymour Lipton: Sculptures, Maquettes and Drawings, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY

2000
An American Sculptor: Seymour Lipton, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University  Park, PA; Elvehjem Museum, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA; Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; Brunnier  Art Museum, Iowa State University, Iowa City, IA; Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA

2002
Seymour Lipton Sculpture: Post-War America in Three Dimensions, Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenburg  College, Allentown, PA

2005
Seymour Lipton: Abstract Expressionist Sculptor, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2008
Seymour Lipton: Metal, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2009
The Guardian and the Avant-Garde: Seymour Lipton's Sentinel II in Context, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC

2022                      
Seymour Lipton II, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

1933
Hunger, Fascism and War, John Reed Club-Gallery, New York, NY

1934 
Working Class Sculpture, John Reed Club-Gallery, New York, NY

1940 
Art in a Democracy, American Artists Congress, New York, NY

1941 
In the Realm of Art, Sculptor’s Guild, New York, NY

1943
American Sculpture of Our Time, Buchholz Gallery, New York, NY
We Challenge War Art, Puma Gallery, New York, NY
Working Class Sculpture, John Reed Club, New York, NY
Museum Selection, American-British Center Art Show, New York, NY

1945 
Recent Work by American Sculptors, Buchholz Gallery, New York, NY
Artists’ League Show, New York, NY
New American Painting and Sculpture, ACA Gallery, New York, NY

1946 
The Horse in Painting and Sculpture, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, NY

1947 
Annual Show of Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Modern House Comes to Life, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, NY
Abstract and Surrealist American Art, Fifty-Eight Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
New Sculpture, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY

1949 
American Artists for Israel, Jewish Museum, New York, NY
American Abstract Artists 13th Annual Exhibition, Riverside Museum, New York, NY; Boise Art Association, Boise, ID; State College of Washington (now Washington State University), Pullman, WA; Fine Arts Gallery (now Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Mills College Art Gallery (now Mills College Art Museum), Mills College, Oakland, CA

1950 
Ten Years, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY

1951 
Six Sculptors, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Sculpture Annual Exhibit, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1952 
Welded Sculpture, The Sculpture Center, New York, NY

1955 
El Arte Moderno en los Estados Unidos. Museo de Arte Moderno, Barcelona, Spain
Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
A Selection of Contemporary American Sculpture, University of Minnesota Art Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
The New Decade: 35 American Painters and Sculptors, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Art, CA; Art Galleries, University of California at Los Angeles, CA; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, CO; City Art Museum of St. Louis, MO

1956
12 Americans, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1957
62nd American Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Forged in Fire, de Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA; Southwestern University, Texas; Time, Inc., New York, NY; White Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Carnegie Endowment, New York, NY; The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; Purdue University, Indiana
1957 Annual Exhibition: Sculpture, Paintings, Watercolors, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1958
La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Expo 58 (Brussels World’s Fair), Heysel, Brussels, Belgium
Nature in Abstraction: The Relation of Abstract Painting and Sculpture to Nature in 20th Century
American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Philips Collection, Washington, DC; Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, TX, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Six American Sculptors: Baskin, Farr, Glasco, Lipton, Schmidt, Schor, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1959 
Eighteen Living American Artists Selected by the Friends of the Museum, Whitney Museum of American  Art, New York, NY
Recent Sculpture U.S.A., The Museum of Modern Art; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; City Art Museum of St. Louis (now Saint Louis Art   Museum), St. Louis, MO; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1961
Exhibition of Art by the Faculty and Visiting Artists of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, ME
American Abstract Expressionists and Imagists, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

1963
Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, The University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Sculpture in the Open Air, Battersea Park, London, England

1964 
American Drawings, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Ceramics by Twelve Artists, American Federation of the Arts, New York, NY
Artists for CORE: Third Annual Art Exhibition and Sale, Gallery of American Federation of Arts, American Federation of Arts, New York, NY

1965 
Critics’ Choice: Art Since World War II, Providence Art Club, Providence, RI
Amerikanische Plastik USA 20. Jahrhundert, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany
Art in Science, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY

1966
Art of the United States: 1670-1966, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Artists for CORE Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund, Fifth Annual Exhibition and Sale, Grippi & Waddell Gallery, New York, NY

1968
Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1969
The Creative Process, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI

1975
American Art Since 1945 from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Modern Art, New  York, NY

1978
Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show,  Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX

1979 
Vanguard American Sculpture: 1913–1939, Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ

1984
The Third Dimension: Sculpture of the New York School, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA;

1985 
1935: The Year and the Arts, Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, NY
Sculptural Expressions: Seven Artists in Metal and Drawing 1947–1960, Sarah Lawrence College Art  Gallery, Bronxville, NY

1986
Jung and Abstract Expressionism: The Collective Image Among Individual Voices, Lowe Gallery, Hofstra  University, Hempstead, NY
Elders of the Tribe, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, NY; University Art Gallery, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY; Nabisco Brands Gallery, East Hanover, NJ; Davenport Art Gallery, Davenport, IA; FHP Hippodrome Gallery, Long Beach, CA; Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL; DeLand Museum of Art, DeLand, FL; Clara M. Eagle Gallery, Price Doyle Fine Arts Center, Murray State University, Murray, KY; Prichard Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID; University Gallery of Fine Art, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX; Joseph and Margaret Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA; NCOA Gallery Patina, The National Council on the Aging, Washington, DC

1987
Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Accent on Sculpture: Small-scale works from the Permanent Collection, Columbus Museum of Art,  Columbus, OH

1990
The Coming of Age in American Sculpture: The First Decades of the Sculptors Guild: 1930s-1950s, Lowe  Gallery, Hofstra University. Hempstead, NY

1994
Between Transcendence and Brutality: American Sculptural Drawings from the 1940s and 1950s, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL

1995
The Figure in American Sculpture: A Question of Modernity, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

1998  
Twentieth Century American Drawings, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK; Sunrise Museums,    Charleston, WV; Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, FL; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN; Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID

1999
Carved, Modeled, Assembled, Welded, Drawn: Sculptors’ Works in the Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

2000
Cold War Modern: The Domesticated Avant-Garde, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

2001
Meaning, Medium, and Method: American
Sculpture 1940-1960, Selections from the Whitney Museum of  American Art at the New York State Museum, New York State Museum, Albany, NY

2003
American Sculpture from the FIA’s Collection, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI

2004
Weapons of Mass Dissemination: The Propaganda of War, Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach, FL
Contemporary American Sculpture: Collection of the FIA, Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum,  Saginaw State University, University Center, MI
Peter Clark: Snow Falling on Snow, Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, NY
From Abstraction to Minimalism, Bradbury Gallery, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AK
Celebrating the Jewish Contribution to 20th Century American Art, Rhode Island School of Design,  Providence, RI

2005
Ceramics by Twelve Artists: A Homage to David Gill, Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY
Surrealism USA, National Academy of Design, New York, NY; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Mid-Century USA: American Art & Design, 1940-1960, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK
Organic New York, 1941-1949, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2007
Body Beware:  18 American Artists, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2008
New York Cool:  Painting and Sculpture from the NYU Art Collection, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY; Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, PA; University of Iowa Museum of At, Iowa City, IA; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
Action/Abstraction:  Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Rockefeller at 100, New York State Museum, Albany, NY
Repartir à Zéro, 1945-1949 (Starting from Scratch), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, France
2008-2012 Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL; Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH; Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC

2009 
Wired, Welded, Cast & Carved: American Abstract Sculpture, 1952-1962, National Academy Museum, New York, NY
Modern American Watercolors and Drawings from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1910-1960, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Long Island Moderns: Artists on the North Shore from Edward Steichen to Cindy Sherman, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence (Part Two: Sculpture), Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME

2010
Precarious Balance: Noguchi’s Sculpture of the 1940s in Context, Martha Parrish & James Reinish, Inc., New York, NY
Unconscious Unbound: Surrealism in America, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Abstract Expressionist New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

2011
Abstract Expressionism: Reloading the Canon, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2012
Encounters with the 1930’s, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
INsite/INchelsea: The Inaugural Exhibition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2013
Abstract Expressionism / In Context: Seymour Lipton, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Its Surreal Thing: The Temptation of Objects, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
A Gift from the Heart: American Art from the Collection of James and Barbara Palmer, Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State, University Park, PA

2014
When Modern was Contemporary: Selections from the Roy R. Neuberger Collection, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY

2015
Abstraction: Drawings by Scuptors, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Marvelous Objects: Surrealist Sculpture from Paris to New York, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC

2016
Close Readings: American Abstract Art from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery Collection, Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville, TN 

2018
Look:Forward, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2019
Globalism Pops BACK Into View: The Rise of Abstract Expressionism, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2020
The Roots of Abstraction, Housatonic Museum of Art, Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, CT

2022
An American Place: Selections from the James and Barbara Palmer Collection, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

2023
Scale: Sculpture (1945-2000), Juan March Foundation, Madrid, Spain 

1957
Acquisition Prize, Saõ Paulo, Brazil
Logan Award, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, for Cloak

1960 
Purchase Award, New School for Social Research, New York City, for Viking
Architectural League Award, for Hero
Guggenheim Award

1961 
Award from Perini, San Francisco, for Chinese Bird
Ford Foundation Award
Architectural League Award, for Argonaut I
Architectural League Award, for Argonaut II

1968 
First Prize, George D. Widener Gold Medal, “The 163rd Annual Exhibition of American Painting and    Sculpture”, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA