H.C. Westermann

Dreaming of a Speech Without Words: The Paintings and Early Objects of H. C. Westermann

Dreaming of a Speech Without Words: The Paintings and Early Objects of H. C. Westermann is the first exhibition of paintings by of H. C. Westermann (1922 - 1981) since before the artist gained critical attention in the late 1950s. The only other public exhibit of Westermann?s early paintings was staged in 1954 at the now defunct Mandel Brothers department store, formerly on State Street in Chicago. Dreaming of a Speech Without Words also includes early painted objects, sculptures, and drawings, many of which have never been shown publicly. Through a dialogue between and among these early works, the exhibition sheds light on Westermann?s nascent enthusiasm for painting in the beginning of the 1950s and the implications this had for his development as an artist best known at the end of the decade for his finely crafted wooden sculptures. Raised in Los Angeles, California, Westermann served as a gunner aboard the USS Enterprise in World War II and as a combat infantryman in the Korean War. Between the wars, he studied art at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a school first suggested to him by a shipmate aboard the Enterprise. After World War II, Westermann studied vocational arts ? commercial and industrial design and drafting ? but changed his course of study to fine art after returning from Korea. In a 1954 letter to his sister Martha, Westermann confided that he ?had something to say? and over time that ?something? had a great deal to do with the traumatic experiences he had survived in both wars. Works in the exhibition reveal the artist?s self exploration and rapid artistic development against the backdrop of late modernism in the United States.


Dreaming of a Speech Without Words: the Paintings and Early Objects of H. C. Westermann opened at The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, and will travel to the? Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA (June 30 ? October 21, 2007) and the Iris & Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford , Stanford, CA (November 21, 2007 ? March 2, 2008), and is accompanied by a full-color catalog with essays by Michael Rooks, Dennis Adrian, and David McCarthy and postscript by Mark Booth, Aaron Curry, Chris Johanson, Ryan Johnson, John Tanji Koga, Jason Meadows, Jim Nutt, Erik Parker, Ruth Root, and Ed Ruscha.


Dreaming of a Speech Without Words: The Paintings and Early Objects of H.C. Westermann was organized by The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu and curated by Michael Rooks. Support for this exhibition has been generously provided by Roy and Mary Cullen, Ruth P. Horwich and Sharon and Thurston Twigg-Smith with additional support from Horizon Lines, LLC and ResortQuest Hawaii, formerly Aston Hotels and Resorts. The exhibition is part of the New Jersey American Masterpieces series and is supported by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Henry and Gilda Buchbinder Family Foundation and by the following Exhibition Angels: Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker, Rita and Bernard S. Berkowitz, Bobbie and Bob Constable, Denise and Ira Wagner, and Carol and Harlan Waksal. This exhibition is dedicated to Walter Hopps.?