By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
EAST HARLEM — It's fitting that when Herbert Katzman died in his studio in October 2004 a drawing of the New York Harbor was resting on the worktable in front of him. After all, for more than 50 years, New York's natural and manmade landscapes served as his muse.
"Glorious Sky: Herbert Katzman's New York," a new exhibit that opens Friday at the Museum of the City of New York, captures the expressionist artist's love affair with Manhattan, featuring nearly 90 works that capture the bridges, skylines and waterways of the city in which he lived.
"Since 1950 when Katzman came here by boat into New York Harbor, the city really became not only his subject, but his muse," the exhibit's guest curator Julia Blaut told DNAinfo.
"He thought the city was beautiful and he was specifically occupied with the New York waterways, boat traffic, and the outline of the city," she added.
The Brooklyn Bridge and New York Harbor, with its view of the Statue of Liberty, were two of Katzman's primary subjects and continually reappeared in his work, first in his paintings and later in his drawings.
"He had a fascination with the constancy of his motifs, the bridges, the skylines, the landmarks, but what changed over time were things like the sky, the light, and the water, and those things became very abstract in his work," said Blaut.
Katzman saw commercial success during the first half of the 1950s with his figurative paintings showing at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Venice Biennale.
But in the second half of the decade, Abstract Expressionism took hold in the New York art world, leaving Katzman with a dwindling audience.
Nevertheless, Katzman stuck to his figurative vision and, in the absence of commercial success, spent the next 30 years teaching at New York's School of Visual Arts.
"What I love about Katzman is that he really stayed true to himself as an artist and had no reservations about creating art that people would find beautiful at a time when it wasn't popular to do so," said Blaut.
"Glorious Sky: Herbert Katzman's New York" opens at the Museum of the City of New York on Nov. 5 and runs through Feb. 6, 2011. The MCNY is located at 1220 Fifth Ave. between 103rd and 104th streets.
