Born December 6, 1942, New York City
Education Dartmouth College, B.A., 1964 (with Honors in Art, Ames Award)Independent Study, Rome, Italy, 1964-65Hunter College, courses toward M. A. (no degree), 1966
Academic Positions Phyllis and Josef Caroff Professor of Fine Arts 2000-2012, Hunter College, Chairman Department of Art, Elected 1978-2006 Professor 1982-Present, Associate Professor, 1977-82, Assistant Professor 1972-77, Adjunct Instructor 1967-72External Evaluator, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K., 1999-2003External Evaluator, Academy Minerva, 1998; Frank Mohr Institute 2001, Groningen, NetherlandsCalifornia State College, Hayward Visiting Artist, Summer 1970Cooper Union, New York, Visiting Instructor in Color Theory, 1971-72
Awards National Endowment for The Arts, Individual Artist's Fellowship, 1987-88 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, Painting, 1974-75City University of New York, Faculty Research Award, 1997, 1993, 1991, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1981, 1980, 1979 Ames Award, Dartmouth College, 1964
Work in Public Collections
Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
Allentown Art Museum, Allentown PA
Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France
Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Germany
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sprengler Museum, Hannover, Germany
Strassenkunst Programme, City of Hannover, Germany
S.U.N.Y., Fredonia
Ackland Memorial Art Center, Universisty of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, (on loan from Henry Geldzhaler Collection)
Brooklyn Museum (print)
Central Trust Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
A.T.&. T., New York
General Electric Co., Corporate Headquarters, Fairfield, Ct.
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, Architects, New York
United States Steel Corp., Pittsburgh
Baxter Travenol Laboratories, Dearfield, Illinois
Silkscreeners Guild, Germany
Warner National Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio
One-Person Exhibitions
| 2019 | “Encountering Color: Sanford Wurmfeld E-Cyclorama II (and other Paintings)”, Gallery Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN |
| “Sanford Wurmfeld: Variations”, Minus Space, New York | |
| 2015 | “Sanford Wurmfeld: Grey Series”, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York |
| 2013 | “Sanford Wurmfeld: Light and Dark”, Minus Space, Brooklyn New York |
| “Sanford Wurmfeld: Color Visions 1966-2013", Hunter College Times Square Gallery, New York | |
| David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM | |
| 2011 | “E-Cyclorama: Immersed In Color”, Ewing Museum Gallery, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN |
| 2009 | "E-Cyclorama: Immersed in Color”, Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, NY |
| 2008 | “E-Cyclorama”, Edinburgh College of Art for Edinburgh Festival, Scotland |
| 2004 | “Cyclorama 2000", Talbot-Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland |
| 2003 | Panorama, Altoetting, Germany |
| 2002 | Mucsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary |
| 2000/01 | “Cyclorama 2000", Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen Germany |
| 1978 | Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York |
| Bard College, Invitational Exhibit, Annandale, New York | |
| 1977 | Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York |
| 1976 | Galerie Denise Rene, New York |
| 1974 | Rockefeller Memorial Gallery, S.U.N.Y. Fredonia, New York |
| 1971 | Bryant Park, New York - Sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs, New York, and the Fischbach Gallery, New York |
| 1969/70 | Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York |
| 2018 | “Radiant Energy”, Three person exhibit, Center for the Visual Arts New Jersey |
| 2017 | “Polychrome”, Two person exhibit, Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY |
| 2015 | “Past Present: Conversations across Time”, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown PA |
| 2014 | “Op+Pop: Experiments of American Artists since 1960", Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
| 2013 | “Hauptsache Grau”, Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin |
| 2011 | "Pointing a Telescope at the Sun”, Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY |
| 2010 | “Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art”, National Academy, New York |
| 2008 | “regard 05:Rythmes”, Espace de l’Art Concret – Chateaux de Mouans, France |
| 2007 | The Optical Edge”, curated by Robert Morgan, Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery |
| 2006 | “The Grid: Process and Structure”, Concordia College, Ann Arbor, MI |
| 2006 | The Panorama Phenomenon”, Panorama Mesdag, The Hague |
| 2005 | Faculty Exhibition, Times Square Gallery |
| 2004 | “Longo, Ginnever, Smith, Wurmfeld: Macquettes”, Wooster Art Space |
| 2004 | “Donation Albers-Honegger”, Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France |
| 2004 | “Farbe Als Farbe”, Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Hagen |
| 2004 | “Moved”, Hunter College Times Square Gallery |
| 2003 | “Painted Parameters”, Andre Zarre Gallery, NY |
| 2003 | “Seeing Red”, Hunter College, Times Square Gallery |
| 2002 | “Color: A Life of its Own”, Mucsarnok, Budapest |
| 2000 | “Invitational Exhibition”, American Academy of Arts and Letters, NYC |
| 1999 | “Die Farbe (rot) hat mich ”, Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Germany |
| 1995 | "In Small Dimensions," Andre Zarre Gallery, New York |
| 1995 | "American Color," Louis Stern Fine Arts, Los Angeles |
| 1991 | "Pleasure," Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center Buffalo, New York, |
| 1991 | "Physicality," MFA Gallery, Hunter College, New York |
| 1990 | The Grid: Organization and Idea," Ben Shahn Galleries, The William Peterson College of New Jersey, Wayne |
| 1989 | A Debate on Abstraction: The Persistence of Painting," Leubsdorf Gallery, Hunter College, New York |
| 1985 | Approaches to Abstraction: Art from C.U.N.Y.," Shanghai Exhibition Hall, China |
| 1971 | Strassenkunst Programme, Hannover, Germany |
| 1974 | Galerie Denise Rene, New York |
| 1968 | The Museum of Modern Art, New York |
| 1968 | Grand Palais, Paris |
| 1968 | Kunsthaus, Zurich |
| 1969 | Tate Gallery, London |
Color Seminar, Forthcoming Minus Space Books, Volume 1, 2020
“Seurat Drawings: Reconstructed Reveries”, Master Drawings, June 2008“Perceptual Color Phenomena in Abstract Painting and the Cyclorama Project”, Proceedings of the International Conference on Color Harmony, Budapest 2007, forthcoming.
“Why a Cyclorama?”, Proceedings of the International Panorama Conference, NewYork 2004.
“Getting to the Cyclorama: A Brief Personal History”, for catalogue Cyclorama, Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh, 2004
“Introductory Remarks for the Symposium: Color as Experience”, Seeing Red, eds. Michael Fehr and Sanford Wurmfeld, Salon Verlag, Cologne, 2004
“Colour Painters/Colour Painting” Colour Perception: Philosophical, Psychological, Artistic, and Computational Perspectives, edited by Brian Funt, Vancouver Studies in Cognitive Science, Oxford University Press, 2000.
"Color in Abstract Painting," Color for Scientists, Engineers, and Artists, edited by Kurt Nassau, Elsevier, Netherlands, 1998.
"From Surface to Luminous Film Color in Abstract Painting," for catalogue Structure Color, Wake Forrest University, 1996.
"Presentational Painting," for catalogue Presentational Painting, Hunter College Art Galleries, 1993
"The Education of the Artist," for catalogue The First Decade of the MFA Hunter College 1981-91, Hunter College Art Galleries
"On Color Charts and Painting," for catalogue Color Order and Aesthetics: The Oeuvre of Dr. Amelius Muller, Hunter College Art Gallery, New York, 1987
"Approaches to Abstraction," for catalogue Art from C.U.N.Y., Shangahi, China, 1986
Color Documents: A Presentational Theory, catalogue for exhibition of same title, Hunter College Art Gallery, New York, 1985
"Introduction," for catalogue A Debate on Abstraction, Hunter College Art Galleries, 1988-89