H. C. Westermann

American, 1922–1981

Death placeDanbury, Connecticut, United States

Birth placeLos Angeles, California, United States

BiographyBorn in 1922 at Los Angeles. In 1940 he went to Los Angeles City College. In 1941-42 he worked as a woodcutter, stone mason and carpenter. Between 1942 and 1946 he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1946-47 he worked as an acrobat and toured the Orient. He studied commercial art, 1947-52, and painting, 1952, at the Art Institute of Chicago. Fought in the Korean War. In 1954 he made his first sculptures. He had his first one-man exhibition in 1956. In 1959 he was included in the exhibition New Images of Man at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1968 he was given a retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. He was represented at the documenta "4" and "5", Kassel. In 1973 he won the Grand Prix at the São Paulo Biennale. In 1976 he showed at the Venice Biennale. In 1978-79 he had a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which was shown in several cities in the USA. In 1980-81 the Arts Council organized a retrospective exhibition for a tour of Great Britain.

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