My Favorite Artists
So many sculptors have influenced how I see the world as an artist. Their style, daring and risk-taking inspire me to work hard and discover creative ways to express my vision
So many sculptors have influenced how I see the world as an artist. Their style, daring and risk-taking inspire me to work hard and discover creative ways to express my vision
For some inexplicable reason, I registered for an art history survey course in college. It was a life-changing decision. I was simply mesmerized by art! It made me a lover of art- museums, public sculpture and architecture. When we travel, our first stop is always the local art museum-large and small-and finding sculpture wherever it may be-in parks, backyards, city streets, the natural world.
I've also read widely about the lives of artists-to appreciate their artistic journeys and the life experiences that shaped them. I committed myself to being a full-time sculptor at age 65. Many artists have influenced the way I see the world as an artist and then express that vision in sculptural form. Being in a museum or endlessly circling a piece of public sculpture fills me with joy, awe and reverence:
Three artists, in particular, form the bedrock of my artistic pantheon:
Jacques Lipchitz Marcel Duchamp David Smith
Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) was right in the thick of cubism and his work has tremendous energy and daring. Yet he also sculpted figurative pieces that honor his Jewish heritage. He never was afraid to push his work in unexpected ways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lipchitz
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) and his oeuvre pushed boundaries, sensibilities and tastes in ways that were disturbing, confounding and outlandish. He understood and pioneered the notion that art isn’t just making. It's an exercise in reformulating the social and esthetic rules by which we live.
https://www.artsy.net/artist/marcel-duchamp
David Smith (1906-1965) was the sculptor who built up his works one piece of steel at a time (just as I do). He was an amazing craftsman and his work possessed the power of flow and form. He took scraps of metal and created sensational works of art. He built monuments using simple rectangles, squares and cylinders. Here is a quote from David Smith that expresses a lot about the artist's life:
“The work you see are segments of my work life. If you prefer one work over another,
it is your privilege, but it does not interest me. The work is a statement of identity, it
comes from a stream, it is related to my past works, the three or four works in progress
and the work yet to come.”
http://www.davidsmithestate.org
There are other sculptors whose works stop me cold.
Pablo Gargallo (1881-1934) created a piece called “The Prophet” that is the most beautiful piece of figurative art I’ve ever seen. The Italian Futurists, particularly Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla, capture the sheer force and power of nature. The politics of the Futurists were disgraceful and deplorable. Their art was sheer genius and inspiring. How does one reconcile this contradiction?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Gargallo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Boccioni
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Balla
David Stromeyer lives and works in Vermont and creates work that poses unique technical and fabrication challenges while at the same time possessing both a sense of weightlessness and improbably balance. How does he do that? He bends, twists and crushes steel as though it were paper and then assembles these misshapen pieces into elegant, flowing sculptures. You can visit his Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in northern Vermont to see what I mean. It’s open June-October each year. Additionally, David and his wife, Sarah, have been dear friends and he has been an inspirational mentor to me and my art career.
http://www.coldhollowsculpturepark.com
And I continue to discover new artists who take my breath away. On a recent trip to Israel, I discovered Igael Tumarkin (1933-2021). He is well known in Israel and his work can be found in many of the museums there. His powerful, over the top sculpture is raw, sensationalist and stunning in its explicitness. I kept finding his work from one museum to the next and each time, I felt a kinship with his powerful imagery.
http://www.imj.org.il/artcenter/newsite/en/gallery/?artist=Tumarkin
A few years ago, I read a fascinating article in The New Yorker about the artist, Thornton Dial (1928-2016), who used found objects and his artistic genius to create spellbinding art. He was untrained as an artist and rarely left his home in Alabama but nevertheless, took what he found around him and made stunning creations. He died in January 2016. I have yet to see his work, but I hope to do that at some point in the future. Here is a wonderful quote from that The New Yorker article:
"It seems like some people believe that, just because I ain't got no education, say I must
be too ignorant for art. Seems like some people always going to value the Negro that way.
I believe I have proved that my art is about ideas, and about life, and the experience of the
world...I ain't never been much good at talking about stuff. I always just done the stuff
I had a mind to do. My art do my talking."
https://www.artsy.net/artist/thornton-dial
On a recent trip (2016) to Iceland, we visited the National Gallery of Art in Reykjavik. It's quite small as museums go but the lesson here is 'small can be very big sometimes.' I was floored by an exhibit by the Belgian artist Berlinde de Bruyckere (b. 1964). See photos of her pieces above. De Bruyckere's powerful, contorted figures, human and equine, of wax, animal skins and hair, evoke contemporary narratives and personal experiences. The works suggest the presence of a powerful, pulsating life force while simultaneously forcing us to come face to face with our now inevitable decay and destruction. Intuition is of great significance throughout her creative process.
De Bruyckere's drawings and sculptures start as true-to-life anatomical studies, shaped by the traditions of the Flemish and German Renaissance which have had a profound influence on the artist's work, as much as by her own imagination and poetic sensibility. The paintings of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), in particular, were an early influence. Of her experience of his works, De Bruyckere says: “When I look at his paintings, I experience their physicality as the medium to express the thoughts and concerns of those figures: their fears, their passions, their doubts … Above all I feel an affinity with the way he deals with corporeality, the way he uses the sensual body as an image for the mental body.” In a career spanning three decades, De Bruyckere reached international acclaim at the 2003 Venice Biennale, when her sculptures were shown in the Italian Pavilion.
http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/6/berlinde-de-bruyckere/biography/
I have included selected photos of the work of my favorite artists. I hope that just as I have been inspired by their vision and hard work, some of my work will inspire you.
I've also read widely about the lives of artists-to appreciate their artistic journeys and the life experiences that shaped them. I committed myself to being a full-time sculptor at age 65. Many artists have influenced the way I see the world as an artist and then express that vision in sculptural form. Being in a museum or endlessly circling a piece of public sculpture fills me with joy, awe and reverence:
- Joy (because I am among my brethren)
- Awe (because I am overwhelmed by their creative genius)
- Reverence (because of the intensity and beauty inspired by their art)
Three artists, in particular, form the bedrock of my artistic pantheon:
Jacques Lipchitz Marcel Duchamp David Smith
Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) was right in the thick of cubism and his work has tremendous energy and daring. Yet he also sculpted figurative pieces that honor his Jewish heritage. He never was afraid to push his work in unexpected ways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lipchitz
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) and his oeuvre pushed boundaries, sensibilities and tastes in ways that were disturbing, confounding and outlandish. He understood and pioneered the notion that art isn’t just making. It's an exercise in reformulating the social and esthetic rules by which we live.
https://www.artsy.net/artist/marcel-duchamp
David Smith (1906-1965) was the sculptor who built up his works one piece of steel at a time (just as I do). He was an amazing craftsman and his work possessed the power of flow and form. He took scraps of metal and created sensational works of art. He built monuments using simple rectangles, squares and cylinders. Here is a quote from David Smith that expresses a lot about the artist's life:
“The work you see are segments of my work life. If you prefer one work over another,
it is your privilege, but it does not interest me. The work is a statement of identity, it
comes from a stream, it is related to my past works, the three or four works in progress
and the work yet to come.”
http://www.davidsmithestate.org
There are other sculptors whose works stop me cold.
Pablo Gargallo (1881-1934) created a piece called “The Prophet” that is the most beautiful piece of figurative art I’ve ever seen. The Italian Futurists, particularly Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla, capture the sheer force and power of nature. The politics of the Futurists were disgraceful and deplorable. Their art was sheer genius and inspiring. How does one reconcile this contradiction?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Gargallo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Boccioni
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Balla
David Stromeyer lives and works in Vermont and creates work that poses unique technical and fabrication challenges while at the same time possessing both a sense of weightlessness and improbably balance. How does he do that? He bends, twists and crushes steel as though it were paper and then assembles these misshapen pieces into elegant, flowing sculptures. You can visit his Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in northern Vermont to see what I mean. It’s open June-October each year. Additionally, David and his wife, Sarah, have been dear friends and he has been an inspirational mentor to me and my art career.
http://www.coldhollowsculpturepark.com
And I continue to discover new artists who take my breath away. On a recent trip to Israel, I discovered Igael Tumarkin (1933-2021). He is well known in Israel and his work can be found in many of the museums there. His powerful, over the top sculpture is raw, sensationalist and stunning in its explicitness. I kept finding his work from one museum to the next and each time, I felt a kinship with his powerful imagery.
http://www.imj.org.il/artcenter/newsite/en/gallery/?artist=Tumarkin
A few years ago, I read a fascinating article in The New Yorker about the artist, Thornton Dial (1928-2016), who used found objects and his artistic genius to create spellbinding art. He was untrained as an artist and rarely left his home in Alabama but nevertheless, took what he found around him and made stunning creations. He died in January 2016. I have yet to see his work, but I hope to do that at some point in the future. Here is a wonderful quote from that The New Yorker article:
"It seems like some people believe that, just because I ain't got no education, say I must
be too ignorant for art. Seems like some people always going to value the Negro that way.
I believe I have proved that my art is about ideas, and about life, and the experience of the
world...I ain't never been much good at talking about stuff. I always just done the stuff
I had a mind to do. My art do my talking."
https://www.artsy.net/artist/thornton-dial
On a recent trip (2016) to Iceland, we visited the National Gallery of Art in Reykjavik. It's quite small as museums go but the lesson here is 'small can be very big sometimes.' I was floored by an exhibit by the Belgian artist Berlinde de Bruyckere (b. 1964). See photos of her pieces above. De Bruyckere's powerful, contorted figures, human and equine, of wax, animal skins and hair, evoke contemporary narratives and personal experiences. The works suggest the presence of a powerful, pulsating life force while simultaneously forcing us to come face to face with our now inevitable decay and destruction. Intuition is of great significance throughout her creative process.
De Bruyckere's drawings and sculptures start as true-to-life anatomical studies, shaped by the traditions of the Flemish and German Renaissance which have had a profound influence on the artist's work, as much as by her own imagination and poetic sensibility. The paintings of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), in particular, were an early influence. Of her experience of his works, De Bruyckere says: “When I look at his paintings, I experience their physicality as the medium to express the thoughts and concerns of those figures: their fears, their passions, their doubts … Above all I feel an affinity with the way he deals with corporeality, the way he uses the sensual body as an image for the mental body.” In a career spanning three decades, De Bruyckere reached international acclaim at the 2003 Venice Biennale, when her sculptures were shown in the Italian Pavilion.
http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/6/berlinde-de-bruyckere/biography/
I have included selected photos of the work of my favorite artists. I hope that just as I have been inspired by their vision and hard work, some of my work will inspire you.