Israel Levitan Ceiling
Israel Levitan (1912 - 1982)
UNTITLED
1959
Plaster, steel tubing, lucite, lights
36' x 20'
The ceiling of the chapel's narthex is an abstract sculpture which projects "starlight" through 1,000 Lucite openings giving the effect of a canopy of the night sky. An armature of steel tubing supports the carved plaster ceiling in which the multiple lights are projected through Lucite disks. Common materials are used here to produce an effect of celestial luminescence. In a sense the work is a demonstration of Levitan's philosophical and spiritual beliefs; his other sculptural works have titles such as Exaltation, Aspiration, Consummation and Quiescence.
Levitan's works are found in many major collections. The latest exhibition of his sculpture was held at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1990. After a life of travel and adventure that included living among Blackfoot Indians in Montana, then as an auto worker in Detroit where he won a union-sponsored amateur welterweight boxing title and as a medical corpsman in World War II, he finally settled on art and studied with Amedee Ozenfant in New York and later with Ossip Zadkine in Paris. Over a long and successful career, first as painter and then as sculptor, Levitan received a variety of important commissions and awards. His work is in public and private collections throughout this country, and in Europe and Asia.
