By Mikhail Horowitz
Herman Cherry (1909-1992)
Walter "Bud Plate, c. 1965-1966
Plate Family Collection
Walter “Bud” Plate, who along with his friend Philip Guston was one of the truly great abstract painters associated with Woodstock, was the subject of a memorial exhibition at the Woodstock Artists Association that took place from March 3-25, 1984. I wrote the story reprinted here for the Kingston Daily Freeman, which published it a few days after the show’s opening. Writing this profile afforded me the chance to meet and/or reconnect with many of the Woodstock art colony’s old guard, among them Manny Bromberg, Bill Pachner, Herman Cherry, and Ron DeNitto, all of whom are quoted in the piece. Since then, Plate’s reputation has continued to grow. In 2019, forty-seven years after his death, Bud Plate was feted by the prestigious Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, Long Island, which exhibited his vibrant “East End Abstractions” from August through October.
Very interesting. I like the way you place an artist directly in his era, with his connections, It makes the story all the more memorable.