THE HEART OF WAR
George Widener’s Ukraine
THE HEART OF WAR
George Widener’s Ukraine
George Widener's work occupies a unique place in the art world. A well-known numbers savant, he is celebrated for his ability to craft multi-layered visual narratives that merge mathematical precision with personal storytelling, drawing upon his own vivid memories and fascination with the intricacies of timekeeping systems. His meticulous drawings reflect a deeper, almost obsessive engagement with numbers and their symbolic power, creating artworks that resonate with the complexities of human cognition and experience.
Hirschl & Adler Modern is pleased to present recent works by George Widener (b. 1962) that reflect on his months volunteering in war-ravaged Ukraine. T he Heart of War: George Widener’s Ukraine, on view from March 19 to April 24, 2026, features seven multi-media works on paper completed by the artist after his return to the United States in the fall of 2025. These are partially abstracted reflections of the region’s chaos and emotional intensity, interpreted through a combination of symbols, words, and numbers that are central to the artist’s practice. It was Widener’s sixth volunteer effort in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022. During that time, Widener provided logistical and humanitarian assistance in some of the most sensitive and dangerous places in the war. He bore witness to the aftermath of the massacre in Bucha and delivered supplies to Ukrainian soldiers on various fronts in the Donetsk and Donbas regions: the outskirts of the battles of Avdiivka, Zaporizhzhia, and Pokrovsk. Widener may be the only professional American artist, who is also a veteran, with significant experience in the many theaters of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. His
Untitled [Green, Orange, Red Circles]
Marker, ink and paint on paper
19 3/ 8 x 29 1/2 in.
personal mission is to support local communities and document the ongoing challenges faced by the Ukrainian people. This commitment to both global awareness and the fight for democracy permeates Widener's art, imbuing it with a sense of empathy and urgency. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force during NATO’s Cold War era, Widener grapples with long-diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Over decades, he has struggled to adjust to civilian life and, instead, has chosen a comparatively unrooted existence. Widener’s resulting peregrinations are a recurring theme in his work. Many of Widener’s drawings form a travel log of his experiences around the world, especially in Europe. The drawings are map-like in appearance and dense with information.
The works in The Heart of War take visual cues from heavily relied-upon maps of the Ukraine-Russia conflict compiled by the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C., an open-source intelligence and analytics organization whose up-to-date interactive maps are used widely by combatants and non-combatants alike. They are considered highly accurate reporting of the ever-fluctuating frontline and of troop movements in certain ongoing battles. These detailed geographic maps are overlayed with colors and lines denoting captured territory and enemy incursions. A series of symbols and crosshatches indicate the current status of a given area. Circles pinpoint the heaviest fighting in a 24-hour period.
Specifically, the current work references maps of the battles of Pokrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and others from November 2025. Pokrovsk, a strategically sensitive transit hub for the Donetsk region, has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Despite Russia’s multiple claims of capture over the past year, Ukraine still appeared to hold onto a portion of the beleaguered city. Victory for either side would represent a powerful shift of momentum in the war. During his various trips to Ukraine, Widener spent time near these areas helping in a logistical support role. While there and elsewhere in the country, he met numerous Ukrainian soldiers, many of whom have since been killed in action.
These drawings are Widener’s expression of the devastating impact of the war on himself and others more broadly. They focus on the cold, calculating tone of military analysis juxtaposed against the ruinous destruction and suffering inherent to all wars. On a map, intense fighting is reduced to patterns of simple lines, colors, and symbols on a page effectively distancing the viewer from the chaos. However, Widener uses dense black marker on the periphery of his “maps” to form shapes evoking bombed, hollowed-out concrete buildings he witnessed in the aftermath of fighting throughout Eastern Ukraine. Now the pain and fear are no longer distant or theoretical. They are deeply felt and experienced by artist and viewer alike.
The numbers stamped across the composition are found throughout Widener’s oeuvre. On one level, they are an intuitive attempt by a numbers savant to find order in the chaos seen firsthand. He uses numbers to reveal the existence of recurring patterns in the universe, predictable truths that underlie even the most inexplicable of human follies. Looking closely, the sequences of numbers go forward into the future suggesting the ripple effect trauma can have on families and communities. On another level, counting numbers is an effective coping mechanism for an autistic artist with PTSD under tremendous stress. It is an intensely personal response to an extraordinary moment in human history.
THOMAS B. PARKER Director, Hirschl & Adler Modern
Untitled [with Red Arrows]
2025
Marker, ink and paint on paper
19 1/4 x 29 3/4 in.
Arrows inside Red Border]
Marker, ink and paint on paper
19 1/4 x 29 1/2 in.
Untitled [Three Yellow Spots with Red Arrows]
2025
Marker, ink and paint on paper
19 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.
Untitled [Green Circles ]
Marker, ink and paint on paper
19 1/2 x 29 5/ 8 in.
George Widener
born
1962 Kentucky
selected solo exhibitions
2023 George Widener: Tip of the Iceberg , Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2022 George Widener: Count Down , Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY
2019 George Widener: Playing Games: Chance, Skill, and Abstraction , Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY
2018 George Widener: Magic Circles , Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY
2014 George Widener: Time Lapse , Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY
2013 George Widener: Secret Universe IV, Hamburger Bahnhof-Contemporary Art National Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Secret Universe: George Widener,Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY
2011 George Widener: Dates , Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY
selected group exhibitions
2025 Summer Variations #2 , Christian Berst Art Brut Gallery, Paris, France
Do the Write Thing #4, Christian Berst Art Brut Gallery, Paris, France
Self-Taught Artists at the Crossroads of Fact and Fiction , Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY
2024 The Apex is Nothing , Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY
Over 50 Brut Artists in l’Esprit Singulier, Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris, France
Coming Soon | While waiting for tomorrow , Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, France
2023 Culturas Paralelas: Works from the Treger Saint Silvestre Collection , Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto, Portugal
2022 31553580 (Obsessie/Obsession): Numbers and Schedules , Museum Van de Geest, Haarlem, Germany
Power(less) , Dox Centre d’Art Contemporain, Prague, Czechia
2021–22 Otherworldly: Where Words End and Eternity Begins… , Galerie Gugging, Klosterneuberg, Austria
2021 Within a Fold of Time , Art et marges museum, Brussels, Belgium
Outsider Art: The Collection of Victor F. Keen , Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
2020 An Alternative Canon: Art Dealers Collecting Outsider Art , Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2019 Memory Palaces: Inside the Collection of Audrey B. Heckler, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
Visionary Architecture , Oliva Creative Factory, São João da Madeira, Portugal
Travel Memories , Antonie de Galbert Collection, Musée de Grenoble, France
2018 L’envol , Maison Rouge, Paris, France
2017–18 The Museum of Everything , Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia
2017 The Golden Ratio Laws , Oliva Creative Factory, São João da Madeira, Portugal
Art Brut: a Story of Individual Mythologies , Treger Saint Silvestre Collection, São João da Madeira, Portugal
2016–17 Save the World? Art et marges museum, Brussels, Belgium
2016 Draw , Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
Eppur si muove–Art et technique , un espace partagé, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
2015–16 Architectures , Collection de l’art brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
2015 Elevations, Bruno Decharme & Antoine de Galbert Collections : Hommage à Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, Château de Hauterives, France
Art Brut Live , Dox Centre for Contemporary Art, Praha, Czech Republic
System and Vision , David Zwirner, New York, NY
Le Bord des Mondes , Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2014
The Wall: Antoine de Galbert Collection , La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Art Brut: Breaking the Boundaries , Oliva Creative Factory, São João da Madeira, Portugal
On the Horizon , Christian Berst Art Brut Gallery, Paris, France
2013–14 Vehicles , Collection de l’art brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
2013 Raw Vision: 25 Years of Art Brut , Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris, France
The Alternative Guide to the Universe , Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection , Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Brazilian Customs Snafu , Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2012 The Museum of Everything, Exhibition #1, Chalet Society, Paris, France
2011 World Transformers: The Art of the Outsiders , Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
2009 In the No , Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Ramirez , Jan Krugler Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Elegant Obsessions – Outsider and Visionary Art , Orleans House, London, UK
2006 Prague City Gallery, Czech Republic
2004 Henry Boxer Gallery, London, UK
collections
abcd / Bruno Decharme Collection, France
American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
Antoine Frérot Collection, France
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Collection de l’art brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
Emmanuelle and Guy Delcourt Collection, France
Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris, France
Hamburger Bahnof National Museum, Berlin, Germany
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
The Keen Collection of Outsider Art at Bethany Mission, Philadelphia, PA
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
Museum of the Mind | Outsider Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Piet Meter Collection, Switzerland
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Treger Saint Silvestre Collection, João da Madeira, Portugal
selected bibliography
“Art Exhibition / News – POCORART World Exhibition,”
Geijutso Shincho , September 21, 2021.
Boler, Kelly. “George Widener’s Art for Art’s Sake.”
Rapid River Magazine , Vol. 7., No. 10.
Cardinal, Roger. “George Widener: An Obsession with Dates and Calendars.” Raw Vision , Issue #51, 2005.
Cardinal, Roger and Colin Rhodes. The Art of George Widener Henry Boxer Gallery, 2009.
Cardinal, Roger, Rick Moody, Mark Pilkington, Valérie Rousseau, Ralph Rugoff, and Margaret Wertheim. The Alternative Guide to the Universe: Mavericks, Outsiders, Visionaries . Hayward Gallery Publishing, 2013.
Crochet, Alexandre. “Fiac Online Viewing Rooms: Notre Sélection.” The Art Newspaper, February 28, 2021.
Duponchelle, Valérie and Béatrice De Rochebouët, “Découvertes, premières ventes et déceptions: nous avons visité la Fiac online 2021.” Le Figaro , March 5, 2021.
Fabre, Clarisse. “ ‘La Folie art brut’, sur Arte, invite à faire tomber les cloisons et les clichés.” Le Monde , April 23, 2023.
Gómez, Edward M. “On the Border.” Art & Antiques Magazine , February, 2008.
Keats, Jonathon. “Savant George Widener Makes Art For Robots… But You’d Better See His Berlin Exhibit Even If You’re Human.” Forbes , May 22, 2013.
Maestrati, Alexia Lanta. “Galeriestes: une vision de la creation.” December 4, 2018.
Mistre-Schall, Mylène. “Ce qui se cache sous le temps qui passe.”
Arts Hebdo Medias , February 24, 2022.
Moss, Alison. “La première FIAC en ligne s'installe dans le paysage.” Le Quotidien de l’Art , March 11, 2021.
Patterson, Tom. “Art for the Super-Computers (and Other Audiences): The Obsessive Drawings and Calendrical Codes of George Widener.” World Transformers: The Art of the Outsiders , Schirn Kunstalle, 2010.
Rhodes, David. “George Widener: Count Down.” The Brooklyn Rail , November 23, 2022.
Romanacce, Aurelie, Pascaline Vallée and Patrick Le Fur. “L’art brut à contre courant.” Arts Magazine , August 29, 2014.
Smith, Roberta. “Untamed Art From the Fringes is a Gust of Bracing Air.” New York Times , January 28, 2005.
Stark-Mornington, Françoise. “Art and Diction: George Widener’s Time Machine.” Lacanian Review Online , April 10, 2019.
Untitled [Besieged Town I]
2025
Untitled [Besieged Town II]
2025
Graphite, black marker, charcoal and acrylic on paper approx. 7 1/4 x 7 3/4 in. each
design
Elizabeth Finger photography
Eric W. Baumgartner
George Widener, p. 16 cover
Untitled [Green, Orange, Red Circles] , 2025 (detail)
Marker, ink and paint on paper
19 3/ 8 x 29 1/2 in.
frontis
Untitled [Red Xs] , 2025
Marker, ink and paint on paper 19 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.
© 2026 Hirschl & Adler Modern ISBN 978-1-937941-32-1
H&A