ArtWatch International Presents the 2016 James Beck Memorial Lecture and Reception

Each year ArtWatch holds an annual James Beck Memorial Lecture and reception to commemorate the scholarly career and the principled stand of its founder, Professor James Beck. The lectures, organized by Michael Daley, the director of ArtWatch UK, provide a platform for distinguished art world speakers in our New York and London campaigning centers.

Dr. Donald Martin Reynolds, Art Historian, Founder of the Monuments Conservancy in New York and NSS Allied Professional member, will speak on NSS Fellow member Andrew Pitynski.

Speaker: Dr. Donald Martin Reynolds

Title: “For Our Freedom and Yours”: The Art and Life of Andrew Pitynski, Portrait of an American Master.

Date: Thursday, September 22nd, 6pm-8pm (with reception)

Venue: The Art Students League, 215 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019

On the lecture:

In keeping with the humanistic tradition of such Renaissance masters as Donatello, Leonardo, and Verocchio, Polish sculptor Andrew Pitynski highlights outstanding figures of Poland’s past through to the 20th century “Partisan” movement, in which his family was active. Through Reynolds’ extensive research into the Pitynski family archives and personal interviews with the artist, this lecture will examine the breadth of this sculptor’s charcoal drawings, photographs, and his monumental finished works. Not only is Pitynski’s art rooted in a love for his Slavic heritage, family history, and Polish homeland, but it reaches out to touch upon the universal struggle for freedom and human rights.

Sculptor Andrew Pitynski is the subject of a new book by Donald M. Reynolds. Read the Review by Peter Gibbon, Senior Research Scholar at the Boston University School of Education. Endlessly inspired, Pitynski’s subject matter varies in theme from freedom fighters and their noble horses to church leaders, famous politicians, fellow artists and groundbreaking scientists. One of Pitynski’s most striking works, and perhaps the piece he is best known for, Katyn-1940, is installed on the Hudson River Waterfront in Jersey City, New Jersey. The sculpture depicts a cuffed, gagged and bayonetted Polish officer and is a memorial to the Stalin-led massacre of Polish nationals in the Katyn forest in 1940. The 34-foot sculpture provides a dramatic silhouette against the Manhattan skyline to the East.

Donald Martin Reynolds is an art historian, consultant, and the author of numerous books including Masters of American Sculpture, from the American Renaissance to the Millennium (Abbeville Press Publishers, 1994) which included many works by past and current members of National Sculpture Society. Reynolds taught at Columbia University from 1970 to 2003 and founded The Monuments Conservancy in 1991.