Born in Brooklyn: Photographs, Sculptures, & Drawings by Walter Weissman, KCC Class of 1966

Brooklyn – The career of Brooklyn-born photographer, sculptor, and arts activist Walter Weissman developed in tandem with the founding and early years of Kingsborough Community College. Currently celebrating its 60th Anniversary, Kingsborough pays tribute to its “first art student” in a month-long exhibition, Born in Brooklyn: Photographs, Sculptures, and Drawings by Walter Weissman, which opens April 17 and runs through May 22, 2024 at the Kingsborough Art Museum (KAM). An opening reception will be held on April 17 from 3:00-7:00 PM.

A member of the pioneering Class of 1966, Weissman was there when the college first opened its doors in September, 1964. He would spend his first year at the college’s annex location, the former P.S. 98 in Sheepshead Bay, until the current Manhattan Beach campus was ready for occupancy in fall 1965. Already interested in photography, Weissman documented his neighborhood in his Brighton Beach/Coney Island Portfolio series (such as Ticket Office, Fig. 1), and also captured images of Kingsborough’s campus as it transitioned from a former Maritime Service Training Station to an academic institution. He also designed the first issue of Antheon, Kingsborough’s art and literary journal, for which he also contributed photographs and poetry.

While at Kingsborough he had the good fortune to study with the artist and critic Gregory Battcock, who not only introduced him to contemporary art practice but also to some of the art world’s leading luminaries, such as Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. After Kingsborough, Weissman would study with the equally-renowned conceptual artist Robert Morris at Hunter College. His sculptural work soon went from small conceptual pieces to larger architectural sculptures/environments that address the ways that architecture can often insidiously direct or misdirect human behavior and thought. The current exhibition documents several of these ephemeral works, including Written Trough: Entrance/Non-Entrance (1980); The Navigator (1983); and The Interrogator (1984), as well as an earlier work, Information Window (1977, Fig. 2), created as part of his residency at the art space PS1 (now MoMA PS1). Weissman was a member of the famed 14 Sculptors Gallery, an early artist’s co-op that sought to rewrite the rules of the gallery system by reclaiming control over exhibitions, promotion, and artistic freedom.  A number of drawings, some related to these and other projects, will be on view, as well as a series of six experimental Vaseline Drawings from 1976.

Also highlighted will be Weissman’s contribution to the history of arts activism in NYC. Always interested in politics, he was active in Art Workers News, a newspaper published by the Foundation for the Community of Artists, as well as the group Artists Meeting for Cultural Change; this latter activist organization, whose members included critic and curator Lucy Lippard and artists Leon Golub, Nancy Spero, and Claes Oldenburg, created a stir in 1975 with its protest of the Whitney’s Bicentennial survey of American Art, which had neglected to feature contemporary trends and artists of color throughout the nation’s history. Moreover, Weissman has had a remarkable career as a portrait photographer, having captured insightful images of Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Elaine de Kooning, Gilbert and George, Richard Serra, and many other artists and writers, including his wife, the feminist painter Eunice Golden. Beginning in 1995, he worked for over twenty years as a photojournalist for agencies such as Globe Photos, Zuma Press, Star Max, and Corbis. Through Walter Weissman’s photographs, sculptures, drawings, and activist projects, this retrospective will provide an overview of his many contributions to the world of contemporary art.

The exhibition is curated by KAM Director Brian E. Hack and is supported by the 60th Anniversary Committee of Kingsborough Community College and the KCC Association. For more information about the exhibition, please contact (718) 368-4817 or email KAM at kccartmuseum@gmail.com. Directions to the college can be found HERE.