NEW YORK, NY.- Hirschl & Adler Modern announced its representation of contemporary artist George Widener (b. 1962), a prominent figure in the Self-Taught art movement whose paintings and drawings are widely admired for their imaginative explorations of numbers, calendars, and time. With recent examples of his striking compositions of interconnected numbers and symbols, Widener will make his debut with the gallery in the exhibition Self-Taught Artists at the Crossroads of Fact & Fiction, on view through April 18, 2025.
Widener's work occupies a unique place in the art world. A well-known numbers savant, he is celebrated for his ability to craft multi-layered visual narratives that merge mathematical precision with personal storytelling, drawing upon his own vivid memories and a fascination with the intricacies of timekeeping systems. His meticulous drawings often reflect a deeper, almost obsessive engagement with numbers and their symbolic power, creating artworks that resonate with the complexities of human cognition and experience.
Widener’s work is currently focused on his extensive travel experiences throughout Europe. The drawings are map-like in appearance and dense with information. They seek to impose order or reveal the underlying logic to his various wanderings across the continent over a period of decades. Of particular note is his ongoing volunteer work in war-torn Ukraine, where he may be the only professional American artist currently contributing his time and talents to support local communities and document the ongoing challenges in the region. This commitment to both global awareness and the fight for Democracy permeates Widener's art, imbuing it with a sense of empathy and urgency.
George Widener’s work has been exhibited worldwide, including Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts (John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2011); The Alternative Guide to the Universe (Hayward Gallery, London 2012); Secret Universe (Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 2013); Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA 2013); Memory Palaces: Inside the Collection of Audrey B. Heckler (American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY 2019); Outsider Art: The Collection of Victor F. Keen (Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL 2021). His work is in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art (Atlanta), the American Folk Art Museum (New York), the Collection de l’Art Brut (Lausanne, Switzerland), the Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, Netherlands), the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection (São João da Madeira, Portugal), the abcd Collection (Paris), and the Hamburger Bahnhof National Museum (Berlin).
Self-Taught Artists at the Crossroads of Fact & Fiction is on view through Friday, April 18, 2025. Located on the 9th floor of the historically landmarked Fuller Building, at the corner of 57th Street and Madison Avenue, Hirschl & Adler Modern is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 am to 5:15 pm.
