Skarstedt
is pleased to present an exhibition of sculptures by renowned artist Willem de
Kooning at their Upper East Side gallery. Featuring ten sculptures made between
1972-74, this exhibition will bring together works modeled by de Kooning
himself rather than examples enlarged from existing forms, which demonstrate
the artist’s skill and inventiveness in this medium. De Kooning Sculptures,
1972-1974 will be on view at Skarstedt (20 E. 79th Street) from November 5
through December 19, and the exhibition will be accompanied by a detailed
catalogue.
For de
Kooning, the exploration of sculpture—which he began at the age of 65—was
intended as an extension of the paintings for which he is widely known and
acclaimed. His first sculptures were created in the summer of 1969, when he
modeled small figures in clay. De Kooning’s sculptures retain many of the
qualities of his paintings—notably, the sense of movement and emotion captured
through abstraction. However, rather than in gestural brushstrokes, his figures
were rendered in wet and malleable clay and later cast in bronze. He handled
the material much like he did oil paint, appreciating its ‘freshness’—
particularly the freedom it granted in that he could deconstruct a work at any
time.
“In some ways, clay is even better than oil,” de Kooning admitted in 1972. “You can
work and work on a painting but you can’t start over again with the canvas like
it was before you put that first stroke down. And sometimes, in the end, it’s
no good, no matter what you do. But with clay, I cover it with a wet cloth and
come back to it the next morning and if I don’t like what I did, or changed my
mind, I can break it down and start over. It’s always fresh.”
While most
sculptors at the time had abandoned clay for steel, de Kooning explored the medium
and kept the art of modeling alive. “Of his generation of Abstract
Expressionist painters, de Kooning is the only one, besides Barnett Newman, to
have sustained an interest in sculpture-making for a substantial amount of
time.” Revisiting the rhetoric of European sculpture of the fifties, his work
marked a total departure from what was happening in sculpture in the early to
mid-seventies.
One of the
‘action painters’, de Kooning used sculpture as another outlet with which to
explore abstract forms. Just as his manipulation of paint created highly
charged moments, his roughly modeled sculptures retain a sense of immediacy in
their melting, oozing shapes. Their tactile forms capture the essence of
figures, from the completely abstract to the more identifiable—for example,
Clamdigger, his first major sculpture—inspired by men digging for clams along
the beaches near his home and studio in East Hampton. De Kooning’s work in the
medium quickly forged its own shape, meriting its own place in the spotlight.
Venue name:
Skarstedt Gallery
Address: 20
E 79th St , New York
Cross
street: between Fifth and Madison Aves
Opening
hours: Tue–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat 10am–5pm
Transport:
Subway: 6 to 77th St
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