Twirbutt
Wood Sructures, Acrylic, Mixed, Digital
Email: twirbu@aol.com
Website: artofjosef.wordpress.com
Video Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIzMgHmYJ28&t=8s
Composition 58, 24″ x 30″, Wood
Josef Twirbutt was born in Lithuania. He moved to Poland in 1945., where in 1957 he received Master of Architecture Degree from The Technical University in Gdansk along with an extensive background in visual arts. While living under the socialistic government in Poland, he applied for a visa to study in Paris that same year. With his friends he bicycled from Gdansk to Paris and never returned to Poland. In 1958 he moved to New York where he practiced architecture and started creating his art in his own unique visual and conceptual vocabulary while sharing a studio with known Polish sculptor Jozef Stachura. He started creating his assemblages from discarded furniture found in New York streets and was attracted to variety of wood, and its myriad of colors and textures, a fascination which continues to this day.
The found object in art is the use of a functional object placed in an art context. Twirbutt continues in a tradition which began in the early twentieth century and includes such notable artist as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Luise Nevelson, and Robert Rauchenberg, among others, all of whom used found objects in their art. Using a table saw he cuts and assembles selected pieces of wood creating a wide variety of beautiful and complex forms, textures, and special relations. The visual rhythm within his work creates a visual musicality. Beginning in 1980, he added color and stain to his engaging and unique constructs adding another significant dimension to his dynamic art.
James Hillman, the noted Jungian analyst once said, We sin against the imagination whenever we ask n image for its meaning, requiring images be translated into concepts… We do not hear music, touch sculpture, or read stories with meaning in mind, but for the sake of imagination. Josef Twirbutts assemblages appeal to our imagination.
He has exhibited his sculpture an numerous art galleries in the US, Mexico, and Europe and his work is included in the US State Departments traveling exhibition Art for Embassies throughout Europe and South America. Large scale installations have included murals at New York City Police Headquarters, the Boston Rehabilitation Center, in the Kodak Computer Center in Rochester, and IBM Office Products Division Headquarters in Franklin Lakes, NJ. He is represented in the collections of the Mexico City Museum of Modern Art, Phoenix Art Museum, the Andrew D. White Museum of Art, the New York University Art Collection, the US State Department Art Collection, and the Kosciuszko Foundation Art Collection.
He was awarded a silver medal in 1970 and a gold medal in 1972 by the International Academy of Arts and Science in Rome, Italy. He has lived and worked in Danville, CA since 2012.
Darwin Marable, Ph. D.
Art/photo historian, lecturer, published writer
