During November-December of 2009, Jack Gerber was proudly included in the celebration show “150 Years and More” at The Philadelphia Sketch Club, and was shown with Rockwell Kent, Paul Wescott, N.C. Wyeth, Thomas Eakins, Benton Spruance and Daniel Garber, among others.
“Jack Gerber reveals an artist who found his voice early in his career, creating a world of intensely colored figures in enigmatic spaces that look familiar but it’s not the world we know. Benton Spruance, one of his art teachers, introduced Gerber to the work of Max Beckman, the Twentieth Century Expressionist artist from Germany.”
(Art Critic, Anne Fabbri)
“I’m developing my own mythology,” said Jack Gerber. “Otherwise, according to William Blake, you will be forever enchained by somebody else’s.”
“Like Matisse, Gerber expresses himself decoratively and with complete and unrestrained abandon. Each canvas is a feast of sumptuous colors and patterns. In fact, the way in which Gerber fills a canvas sets him apart. Every portion of the canvas is an active and integral component of the composition as a whole.”
(Art Critic, Diana Roberts)
“Jack Gerber’s paintings are not only skillfully composed and artfully painted, they generate an exotic ambience that’s both timeless and contemporary.” (Art Critic, Edward J. Sozanski)
“The art of Jack Gerber is nerve naked with the energy of human electricity and a never-ending music of the soul. Together they take shape in the imaginative compositions filled with pulsating color and monumentally scaled patterns. A series of rare Gothic dramas in visual form, they are arrived at with the fluid medium of watercolor or the multi-layered richness of oil pastels on paper and acrylics. Love, transition, wonderment, uncertainty and memory are all given opportunities to speak in these tableaus.”
(Art Critic, Burton Wasserman)
Jack has attended The Art Students League in NYC and Woodstock, and was awarded a Fellowship at and attended The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts. He subsequently served as the President of The Academy and of The Philadelphia Water Color Club.
Jack has won numerous awards in many juried exhibitions and has been shown in: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Woodmere Museum, The National Academy of Design, The Corcoran Gallery, The Cheltenham Art Center, The Allentown Art Museum, The American Color Print Society, The Swedenborg Academy, The Noyes Museum, The Gary Kravitz Collection, The Henry Jaffe Collection, The James A. Michener Art Museum, and Burlington College.
Gerber, Jack was born on May 19, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Education
Student, Pennsylvania Academy Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1953.
Career
Curator Philadelphia Water Color Club. Juror Sketch Club Philadelphia, 1987, 90, Artists’ Equity, 1985, Perkins Center for the Arts, 1984, others.
Works
One-person shows include Roger LaPelle Gallery, Philadelphia, 1983, 84,
Pavilion Galleries, Mount Holly, New Jersey, 1990,
Congregation Beth Orr, 1995,
Plastic Club, Philadelphia, 1995,
Library of the Swedenborg Academy, Pennsylvania, 1996,
The Hill School, Pottstown, 1997,
Rodger Lapelle Gallery, Philadelphia, 2000.
Exhibited in group shows at Pennsylvania Academy Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum Art,
The Library of Congress, Rutgers National Drawing Show, National Academy Design, 1988, 90,
Allentown Museum, 2000,
Philadelphia City Hall, 2000.
Membership
Member American Color Print Society (First prize 1996),
Philadelphia Watercolor Club, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Plastic Club (Gold medal 1997),
The Woodmere Museum (Harry A. Harris award 1997), Philadelphia Museum Art.
