Biography
Sanford Wurmfeld (b. 1942 in Bronx, NY) has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions since the late 1960s. His work is included in collections worldwide, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Sprengel Museum, and Espace de l’Art Concret, and the City of Hannover Germany.
In 2013, he was the subject of a major 45-year survey exhibition entitled Sanford Wurmfeld: Color Visions, 1966-2013 curated by William C. Agee at Hunter College/Times Square Gallery, NYC. He has also presented solo exhibitions at Neuberger Museum of Art, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Galerie Denise Rene, Susan Caldwell Gallery, David Richards Gallery, Minus Space, Bard College, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum (Germany), Mucsarnok Kunsthalle (Hungary), Talbot-Rice Gallery (Scotland), and Ewing Museum Gallery (Knoxville, TN).
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1964 with a BA in Art History, Wurmfeld moved to Rome and spent two years painting before returning to New York where he has lived and worked ever since. In 1968, he was the youngest artist included in the landmark exhibition Art of the Real 1948-68 curated by Eugene Goossen at the Museum of Modern Art, NY. The exhibition traveled for the next two years to the Grand Palais (France), Kunsthaus (Switzerland), and The Tate Gallery (London, England). Wurmfeld’s other museum group exhibitions include the Carnegie International, American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy Museum, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Dayton Art Museum, Akron Art Museum, Allentown Art Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art, New Bedford Art Museum, Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum (Germany), and Espace de l’Art Concret (France), and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Complementing his studio practice, Wurmfeld has lectured and written extensively on the history of color, painting, and abstraction. He has received awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, City University of New York, and Dartmouth College.
In addition to his artistic work, Wurmfeld taught in the Department of Art at Hunter College from 1967-2012, where he educated and mentored countless generations of artists. Originally invited to join the faculty by artists Tony Smith, Ray Parker and critic Eugene Goossen, Wurmfeld was Chairman of the department from 1978-2006 and founded the renowned Hunter MFA program in 1981.
