Peter Lipman-Wulf : Faust II

Peter Lipman-Wulf : Faust II

Adelphi University is pleased to present a solo exhibition of prints made by Peter Lipman-Wulf. All the works on display come from the Adelphi University Art Collection and feature a selection from a body of 70 engravings illustrating Faust II, the second part of the tragic play by Goethe.

Peter Lipman-Wulf was a sculptor and printmaker born in 1905 in Berlin, Germany. His father, a well-known lawyer, and his mother, a prominent sculptor and portraitist, were assimilated Jews who converted to Protestantism. Raised in the culturally animated “salon” atmosphere of the early twentieth century, Lipman-Wulf decided at a very young age to become an artist. His mother cultivated these interests in him, and he was accepted into the avant-garde École d’humanité, a progressive school known as the Odenwaldschule, which centered around a humanistic approach to learning. Lipman-Wulf’s years there laid the groundwork for a life-long passion for nature, and also forged in him the drive to learn the manual skills necessary to continue his studies of the arts.

Lipman-Wulf found asylum from World War II in Switzerland in 1942, and in 1947 he immigrated to the United States. He lived first in New York and later in Sag Harbor, NY, until his death in 1993. Lipman-Wulf was an influential artist and educator in New York, and he was a professor of art at Adelphi University from 1960 to 1977.

The Adelphi University Exhibition program is thrilled to have the chance to make this body of work available to the public. The exhibited works match the dark and complex nature of the original text and add an expressive style that provides an interpretation of the text that is both surreal and playful. Even viewers who are unacquainted with Faust will be treated with an obliquely linear story expressing themes felt deeply on a humanist level, including, but not limited to, doubt, shame, eroticism, and joy.

For more information, please contact Jon Duff at jduff@adelphi.edu.