At eight years old, Jerome Witkin was asked a question by his Catholic school teacher that he’s continued to contemplate throughout his life.

“Will you keep your promises?” Sister Jeromina, asked him.

But what Sister Jeromina was really asking, Witkin said, was if he would continue to become the painter that she saw in him. And, whether he would grow into his art.

Seventy-two years later, Witkin has kept his promise to Sister Jeromina. He is now a widely recognized figurative painter, and will debut his most recent work at the ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse from Nov 9 to Jan 11, 2020. Titled “Jerome Witkin: This Time, This World,” the exhibition is his first at ArtRage.

The duration of the show will include a screening of “Witkin & Witkin,” a documentary about Witkin and his brother, on Nov. 20 and an artist talk with Witkin at the gallery on Jan. 8.

Witkin joined the Syracuse University faculty in 1971 as an art professor at the College of Visual and Performing Arts. He depicts different social issues that are both current and historic. His work includes issues like homelessness and the Holocaust. He draws on personal experiences, like losing his 16-year-old son to a rare blood disorder, and his father’s homelessness.

“I think a lot of people simply paint what they think they should be doing instead of saying ‘I know you’re not going to like this, but I am going to paint this because I need to,’” said Witkin. “I need to do this or else I am not me anymore.”

With white walls covered in penciled notes and pinned sketches, Witkin’s studio is in the backyard of his home. Covering the floor is a worn, paint-splattered tarp. Sunlight streaming through the windows, he works in an open space in the front, while the back rooms are packed with stacks of his older paintings.

Retired SU professor and renowned figurative painter Jerome Witkin will have paintings on display at the ArtRage gallery until January. Courtesy of ArtRage Gallery 

Three years into retirement, Witkin still paints in his studio six days a week. He said creativity isn’t a trait that can be stopped on command.

“It’s like saying I’m not going to use my legs or I’m not going to use my tongue to speak,” he said.

Glasses perched on his nose above his full white beard, Witkin said he works with canvases of five feet or more, as the efficient space for him to communicate his message. Kimberley McCoy, ArtRage community engagement organizer, said the sheer size of his work brings audiences into a world that they can almost step into.

Using different figures to create a narrative, Witkin’s paintings offer a voice for people often ignored in society, said Katrin Naumann, a model for Witkin.

“It’s when people remain silent that these atrocities in the world can continue to be perpetrated,” said Naumann. “He just feels compelled to wake people up and say you must be present, you must look, you must feel something.”

In his Holocaust series, Jack Rutberg, a representative and curator of Witkin’s art of about 20 years, said his portrayal of people’s sufferings has a redeeming visual experience. One painting, “The German Girl,” shows a young girl hunched in the corner offering a bowl of potatoes to a crowd of concentration camp prisoners.

Showcasing the series in his gallery, Rutberg remembers watching an older white-haired woman approach him during the exhibition, fists clenched at her sides.

“Mr. Witkin, I’m a Holocaust survivor,” she said, “and you’re the first one to understand.”

Rutberg said he admires how these paintings show the indescribable.

“This is a quality that has changed people’s lives,” said Rutberg. “I think they’re some of the great masterpieces of the 20th century.”

Born in 1939 in Brooklyn, Witkin attended art schools in his early years. He was later awarded a Pulitzer traveling fellowship, and he studied at the Berlin Academy and later earned his master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joel-Peter Witkin, his identical brother, is a renowned photographer, and though both developed into their art as children, they held their first exhibition together in 2014 called “Twin Visions.” The brothers are currently planning an international exhibition of both Jerome’s paintings and Joel’s photography in places like Brooklyn, Japan, Israel, Europe and other U.S. museums.

Witkin’s work is currently displayed in museums and galleries, such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, and the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

“Jerome has never lost respect for his art and his thrill is in discovery,” said Rutberg. “His creativity comes out of a genuine desire to search and to reveal.”

Over the year, Witkin believes he’s kept that promise to Sister Jeromina. “At 80 years old, plus two months, I just feel like I’ve been given a wonderful life.”

Published on November 13, 2019 at 10:50 pm