Hindsight : WILL KURTZ

Monday, May 07, 2018

Shia Kapos on the New Einstein Sculpture for the Kaplan Institute

Howard Tullman and a group of donors from Illinois Institute of Technology have purchased a piece of art that will become part of the new Kaplan Institute, the university’s center for innovation and technology entrepreneurship.

Howard Tullman

The new piece is a life-size papier-mâché sculpture of Albert Einstein–and it’s amazing.

Tullman recently was named executive director of the institute and, just as he did at 1871, Tribeca Flashpoint College and Kendall College before that, he’s working to make the vast building feel like home.

The 70,000-square-foot building designed by John Ronan Architects will open in October. Ronan, as you recall, was among seven finalists selected to present designs for the Barack Obama Presidential Library—the only local architect in consideration.

IIT’s Institute of Design also will move into the new Kaplan building. Along with great art, Tullman expects the design center will help “humanize” the work and presentation spaces.

The Einstein art was made by Will Kurtz who was a student at the New York Academy of Art where Tullman was a trustee for a number of years. Once Kurtz graduated, Tullman said he and his wife commissioned a sculpture of one of their dogs, Tramp, “And we’ve been supporters of his work ever since.”

"TRAMP"

Tullman will talk more about plans for the institute on June 7, when he speaks at a City Club event.

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think. - Albert Einstein

Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.

- Albert Einstein

ARTIST Will Kurtz

Will Kurtz was born in Flint, Michigan and received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Michigan State University in 1981. He practiced as a landscape architect for 25 years, throughout the United States and Canada.

It wasn’t until he was in his mid thirties that he began creating art as a self-taught artist. Eventually his passion for art superseded landscape architecture and he moved to New York at the age of 50 to attend graduate school at the New York Academy of Art. After graduation with an MFA he was selected to remain and do a one-year fellowship.

He has since had several solo and group shows in New York, Miami, Paris and Belgium. His work is in many prominent collections around the world.

He works in Queens, and lives in New York.