WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Herbert Ferber

Herbert Ferber

Herbert Ferber

?–1991

WA-00022056

Sculpture

Representation

None documented

17

Institutional Exhibitions

25

Works in Collection

29

Assets Indexed

11

Authority-backed Facts

0

Publications Referenced

80%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (2)

WikidataQ765387

Selected Institutional Exhibitions

View all exhibitions →

No image

Sculptors' Drawings

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1986

No image

Prints by Sculptors

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1975

No image

A Selection of Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1971

No image

American Drawings and Watercolors: A Selection from the Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1969–1970

No image

The New American Painting and Sculpture: The First Generation

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1969

No image

Twentieth-Century Art from the Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1969

No image

Dada, Surrealism and their Heritage

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1968

No image

Recent Acquisitions: Painting and Sculpture

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1965

No image

Painting and Sculpture from the Museum Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1964

No image

Portraits from the Museum Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1960

No image

Sculpture of the XXth Century

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1953

No image

International Sculpture Competition: The Unknown Political Prisoner

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1953

Field Verification (7 fields)

6 cross-verified · 1 single-source

Birth yearManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06 + Artsy+1· 95%✓
Death yearManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06 + Duplicate Merge· 95%✓
NationalityManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06 + Artsy· 95%✓
Wikidata IdManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓
BiographyManual Rehabilitation 2026-05-06· 95%✓
Primary mediumDuplicate Merge· 85%✓
LocationArtsy· 85%

Source Registry (1)

Manual Rehabilitationhttps://www.moma.org/artists/1851
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred95%

About

Why this artist matters now

Herbert Ferber was an American sculptor known for welded-metal abstract forms that emerged from postwar modernism. Working primarily in steel and bronze, he developed a vocabulary of open, gestural structures that emphasized space as an active compositional element rather than mere void. His practice bridged constructivist principles with expressionist handling, creating works that read as both architectural and organic. Ferber's sculptures were exhibited internationally and remain central to mid-century American abstraction.

Source: Manual Rehabilitation · Trust score: 95% · Updated 27d ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

—

Medium

Sculpture

Related Artists

6 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

Museum of Modern ArtNew York Whitney Museum of American Art

Canonical record

Artworks (25)

1966 · Ink, watercolor, and charcoal on mulberry paper

24 5/8 x 19 3/4" (62.3 x 501. cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Homage to Piranesi II

1962 · Copper and brass

90 x 46 1/2 x 46 1/2 in. (228.6 x 118.1 x 118.1 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1962 · Brush and pen and black ink and watercolor over graphite on paper

20 7/8 × 14 7/8 in. (53 × 37.8 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Homage to Piranesi, I

Homage to Piranesi, I

1962 · Sheet copper and brass tubing

7' 7 1/4" x 48 3/4" x 48" (231.8 x 123.8 x 121.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Study for Cage Series

1962 · Charcoal and ink on paper

22 3/8 x 14 1/4" (56.8 x 36.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Study after Calligraph in Cage with Cluster and Homage to Piranesi Series

1961 · Watercolor, ink and colored ink, and charcoal on paper

20 1/4 x 13 5/8" (51.3 x 34.6 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Calligraph with Two Walls

1961 · Watercolor, colored ink, and charcoal on paper

20 1/4 x 13 3/4" (51.1 x 34.6 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Study for Sculpture as Environment: Developed from Roof Sculpture with S Curve, II

1960 · Ink on paper

20 x 25 5/8" (50.7 x 64.9 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Study for Sculpture as Environment

1960 · Watercolor and ink on paper

30 1/4 x 22 1/4" (76.8 x 56.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

1959 · brazed copper

with base: 137.7 cm (54 3/16 in.); without base: 117.4 cm (46 1/4 in.)

Cleveland Museum of Art

1959 · Gouache on paper

22 1/8 x 15 1/8" (56.1 x 38.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

1959 · Ink on gray paper

20 1/8 x 12 7/8" (51.1 x 32.5 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

1959 · Ink on colored paper

20 1/8 x 12 7/8" (51.0 x 32.6 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Roof Sculpture with S Curve, II

Roof Sculpture with S Curve, II

49 3/8 x 60 x 26 3/4" (125.4 x 152.4 x 67.8 cm), at base 45 3/8 x 21 3/4" (115.1 x 55.1 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

1953 · Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper

17 1/8 x 12 1/8" (44 x 30.9 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

He Is Not a Man

He Is Not a Man

67 1/4 x 19 1/2 x 13 3/8" (170.9 x 49.4 x 33.9 cm), on concrete base 18 x 12 x 12" (45.7 x 30.4 x 30.4 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

The Bow

47 x 30 1/8 x 24 1/8" (119.3 x 76.5 x 61 cm) including base

Museum of Modern Art

Study for The Bow

Study for The Bow

1950 · Ink on paper

18 3/4 x 12 1/2" (47.4 x 31.5 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock

17 5/8 x 30 x 6 1/2" (44.8 x 76.2 x 16.5 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Study for Calligraph II

1949 · Ink and pencil on paper

18 1/2 x 8 3/4" (47.0 x 22.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Study for Jackson Pollock

Study for Jackson Pollock

1949 · Gouache and ink on paper

8 1/2 x 13 3/4" (21.3 x 34.6 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Portrait of David Hare

9 3/4 × 13 1/8 × 5 1/4 in., 7.6 lb. (24.8 × 33.3 × 13.3 cm, 3.4 kg)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1947 · Pen and black ink and ink wash on tracing paper

9 in. × 11 5/8 in. (22.9 × 29.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study for Metamorphosis

1947 · Gouache and ink on transparentized paper

9 x 11 5/8" (22.7 x 29.4 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

View all 25 artworks →

Artwork sources (4)

25 published of 26 catalogued · 7 with image

MoMA
19 published7 img
The Met
5 published
Cleveland Museum of Art
1 published
+ 1 more source · 1 catalogued, not yet published

Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 1)

1 entries · 1 sources

Dancer
1959 · Cleveland · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number

Record

Images

Century of Progress Exposition, Travel, and Transport Building, Chicago, Illinois, Perspective (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

Century of Progress Exposition, Travel, and Transport Building, Chicago, Illinois, Perspective (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

Relationships

2

Collections2

Museum of Modern Art Whitney Museum of American Art

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

Whitney Museum of American Art