Kaish Family Art Project

On occasion of the centenary year of Luise Kaish (1925–2013), a trailblazing New York City sculptor who pioneered monumental sculptures in bronze, aluminum, and stainless steel in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, we embarked on a partnership to plan and execute a centennial celebration with a centerpiece jewel-box exhibition in Manhattan, curated by Susan Fisher who oversees the artist's legacy and formerly served as Director of Collections and Curatorial Affairs at the Brooklyn Museum, advising her and the family of the artist on strategy; narrative; communications, including media relations, social, and videography; and public engagement, including public programming, including private and public programming, exhibition/installation design, and assistance with the accompanying exhibition catalogue.

Beginning in the late spring of 2025, we began providing integrated advice, guidance, and assistance for Luise Kaish: Fire on the Mountain, a special, limited run presentation of a lesser known, lesser studied aspect of her oeuvre—a body of never shown, never exhibited work made in 1976 at MacDowell, the legendary artist colony and residency in New Hampshire, using fire. We helped to refine the checklist and we suggested archival vitrines with related materials for display. We were also delighted to recommend and commission curator, writer, and art historian Glenn Adamson who contributed an essay—alongside Fisher’s sweeping and historical “Painting with Fire: Luise Kaish at MacDowell”—that expands and complicates her legacy, setting Kaish “alongside other women artists of the time who embraced fire as a creative medium, among them Ana Mendieta, who famously used flame to inscribe her own silhouette into the earth” and Judy Chicago whose Atmospheres — a series of performances involving fireworks, flares, and pigmented smoke.”

In advance of the opening, we successfully arranged the first major editorial placement on the artist in over thirty years since 1988, when New York City art critic Gerrit Henry wrote about Kaish for Arts, “At New York’s MacDowell, the Fiery Epiphanies of Artist Luise Kaish Unfurl,” by Grace Edquist in Vogue—an exclusive ahead of the sublime presentation and breakthrough piece on the artist. “Kaish,” Edquist writes, “had a deep connection to spirituality, particularly Jewish mysticism and cites art historian Norman L. Kleeblatt, who remarks that ‘relevant to the physical fabrication and psychological foundations of Kaish’s Burntworks is the kabbalistic notion of the breaking of the vessels and the related concept of tikkun, or healing the world.’ Is it possible that in layering strips of charred material, Kaish was trying to heal something? I think of Monadnock I, one of her first Burntworks created at MacDowell, in which large rectangular patches of raw canvas are layered on top, almost like a bandage applied to stem the bleeding. By using the destructive force of flame, and balancing the scorched bits with pristine counterparts, she made the case for harmony between light and dark. In 1981 she showed a selection of them at Staempfli gallery. For the exhibition’s catalogue, she wrote: ‘…I like to think of these landscape collages as brief poems, as worlds in themselves, where through the very smallness of a window, we can glimpse the stars of the universe.’”

In anticipation of the exclusive, which we helped to schedule and synchronize down to the hour, we worked closely with Fisher and the artist’s daughter Melissa Kaish to organize a special afternoon for Edquist to view the artwork in the artist’s former home and studio. And, we worked closely with the MacDowell Chief Advancement Officer, Communications Officer/Social Media & Editorial Content, and Creative Director to share the exclusive across social channels @MacDowell1907 and @KaishFamilyArtProject, here.