Louise Bourgeios: A Lifetime of Art & Passion

It seems there are lots of emails poking fun at the way we age. Truly, I find them funny. Yet there is something stereotypical in assuming a loss of our "creative juices" as we age. The renowned French artist, Louise Bourgeois, (1911-2010) an example of continuing original creativity regardless of age.

 

As a younger woman, Ms. Bourgeois created monumental works in marble, glass, latex, rubber, and metal. Her best-known sculptures are her 30-foot high spiders in a series titled, "Maman." (They are tributes to her mother and the other women who worked in the family business of repairing and reweaving valuable tapestries.)

 

 

 When she was 88 years old (1999), she accepted a commission as the first artist to create a monumentally-sized work for the Tate Modern. The commission was to fill Turbine Hall - a room which is 30-feet high and 500 feet long. The installation was titled, "I Do I Undo and I Redo." 

 

 Louise Bourgeois has also explored her ideas in printmaking, painting and performance. In 2007, the Tate Modern curated a survey of her works over a span of 70 years. The survey included some 200 pieces. 

 She conducted Sunday salons for artists, had an exhibition of her textile prints in Stockholm,and was working on a commission in 2010 for the Maison de Balzac in Paris, before her death at age 99. Her last year, she made art to help finance the activism organization, Freedom to Marry. She also created for HIV and Act Up, believing that all people should be treated fairly and equally.

As one writer stated of her, "At 98, and still working, she is a fierce woman who is original, curious, intelligent, sensitive, generous, wildly imaginative, sexual and uncompromising." All I can add is "atta girl," Louise!

Ursula von Rydingsvard: from Childhood Planks...

In this time where news reports about war uprooting families to "refugee" status, I think about the artist Ursula von Rydingsvard (1942-). She was born during the time the Nazis controlled the area of Germany where she was born. Her father was conscripted into forced labor and her family lived in one refugee camp after another.

In 1950 at age 8, her family settled in the United States. However, she remembered her early years as a displaced person sleeping on planks in camps. As she stated, "It wasn't even a lumber construction. It was plank construction that wasn’t very warm in the winters because there was no insulation. It was just me, sleeping against a plank, and on the other side of the plank was the outdoors."

Von Rydingsvard would go on to graduate with an MFA from Columbia University Her works are on display at MOMA, Whitney Museum, National Gallery of Art, and many other most prestigious galleries and museums. She is also the recipient of many grants and fellowships.

Her sculptural works are monumental in size, scope and are mainly created from cedar planks glued into designs. Below are a few examples that barely reflect a 40-year career in the arts - all reflecting those memorable planks from her childhood. How can we ever know what experiences will inform the artist?

Von Rydingsvard was featured on PBS' wonderful series "Art 21." You can view it at:
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/ursula-von-rydingsvard

Guiseppe Penone: The Artist's Hand and Nature

There's a modern Italian art movements established in the 1960s known as "Arte Povera." The translation is "poor art." It represented a radical response to corporate and government mentality in art.

Instead of the acceptable and conventional styles and materials, these artists resisted the technical, mechanized world by creating works with unconventional materials - often using found objects. They made their art statements by combining the natural with the artificial demonstrating how commercialism is overwhelming nature.

 A successful artist, who creates in the Arte Povera style, is Guiseppe Penone(1947-). Penone grew up in a small village near the Alps. The area around his village was wooded and the blend of nature with humanity were a constant presence. This combination, plus a father who was a sculptor, led Penone to the major theme of his art. It was in the trees likeness to the human form that spoke to him and informed his sculptures.

 Here is an example of how Penone creates. He hollowed out a fallen log showing the small tree of the past and titled the piece "The Hidden Life Within" (2008). “My artwork shows, with the language of sculpture, the essence of matter and tries to reveal with the work, the hidden life within.” –Giuseppe Penone






The above piece is titled, "Elevations" (2001) Bronze, Beech tree, 4 Alders. As the trees grow, the bronze roots will incorporate as part of each tree and mark the passage of time.



Above is "Space of Light" (2012) Bronze, Gold Leaf. The bark bears the imprint of many hands showing the connection of humans and nature. The interior of gold illuminates the life-giving properties of light.

Penone has worked with other nature-provided materials. Below is a piece in the series "Spine of Acacia" (2001) consisting of marble and acacia thorns.



The sculptor's Arte Provera works have been shown in museums, galleries and in natural settings all over the world. Have you ever seen his works? What are your thoughts about his approach to describing our interaction with nature?

Michal Trpák and The Human Condition

Recently, I came upon a young Czech artist who is creating very original art. His name is Michal Trpák (1982-). His academic credentials are impeccable. He studied under Master sculptors and graduated from the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design. His internships were in such far flung parts of the world as Korea, Finland and Canada.

Through all his studies, he has distilled an original style of art works mainly depicting the human form and cultural conditions in a surrealistic manner. This is the first of his works that introduced me to his art:

"Escape into Reality" (2008)

Trpák's sculptural commentaries on the human condition were featured in an exhibit at a civic building in the Czech Republic. "Slightly Uncertain" (2012)


"Stage of Fascination" (2009)


"On the Waves of DNA" (2012)

"Thinkers" (2010)


You can see more of his works at: www.michaltrak.com.  Be sure to watch the opening intro. It's fun and worth it!

Barbara Hepworth: A Remarkable Dame

Recently a friend read the bio of an artist and expressed her great admiration. The artist? Barbara Hepworth. (1903-1975). From what my friend told me about Hepworth, I had to know more and wondered how it was I'd never heard of her.

Her story is about great artistry and achievement. English born, Hepworth trained in art at the Royal College of Art. Although she worked in various disciplines, she was best known as a modern sculptor.

She created many public works. Her most famous was the one she created for the United Nations in New York.

She was personal friends with Dag Hammarskjöld, the second United Nations Secretary, who died in a plane crash while on official duty. As part of the memorial to him, Hepworth was asked to design a sculpture.

The sculpture, "Single Form" (1961), was to acknowledge Hammarskjöld as a distinguished and respected peace maker.

Hepworth's sculptures and fame led to Queen Elizabeth II bestowing  the title of "Dame of the British Empire." It stands to reason that Dame Hepworth's sculptures are found in many of the most prestigious museums and galleries.

She accomplished all of this while raising 4 children - 3 being triplets. She dealt with the scarcities of WWII and the difficulties of making ends meet as an artist with a family. Hepworth rose to face all of life's challenges. (Below is a small sampling of her art - one of which is from her own sad loss of her first-born son. The title is: "Madonna and Child" (1954)

Title: "Pelagos" (1946)

Title: "Tide 1" (1946)

Title: "Winged Figure" (1961)

If you've ever in England, be sure to stop off at The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Gardens, St. Ives, which is run by the Tate Gallery. Would you agree that Hepworth was an exceptional artist and a resilient Dame?

Alison Saar: It's a Family Affair

If family influences one, Alison Saar (1956-) couldn't help but become an artist. Her mother, Betye Saar, is a well-known artist and her father, Richard Saar, is an artist and conservationist. In the Saar family, Alison and her two sisters were regularly exposed to visual arts and art as cultural expression.

By the time Alison was in high school, she was assisting her father in his restoration work. The experience gave her a strong sense of how art is created in other cultures. On track to become an artist, she studied African and Caribbean art in college and art school. All of these interests would inform her own art.

Initially, Alison collaborated with her mother. In time, she diverged from her mother's style of small collages to developing her own monumentally-sized sculptures.

Quite a few of her sculptures are commissioned public art. For example, here is her Harriet Tubman Memorial for New York: (click on images to enlarge)





The massive bronze monument depicts Tubman striding forward, pulling away from tree roots that represent slavery. Her skirt holds the images of many faces and object of the ones she led to freedom.

Here are a few other installations:

Title: "Coup"


Titles: "Spring" and "Summer"



Titles: "Fall" and "Winter"



Yes, Alison Saar not only carried on her family's name in art, she also built a highly awarded style and recognition in her own right.

Maya Lin: What's She Been Doing?

Maya Lin was a young student at Yale when she won the competition for the Viet Nam Memorial in 1981. She received lots of accolades. She was even the subject of an award-winning documentary.

Hard to believe, but it's been 31 years since Lin, as an undergraduate, created the memorial. She is now a 52 year-old wife and mother.

What's she been designing since the Viet Nam Memorial? Short answer: "a lot!" Below are just a few of the highlights. (click on images to enlarge)

Besides the well-known Viet Nam Memorial, Lin created the Civil Rights Memorial in tribute to those who put their courage (and lives)  up for what they believed.

Lin also designed the wonderful timepiece at the Penn Station's ceiling in New York City titled "Eclipsed Time."

Over the years, Lin has created more and more environmental art. Sometimes her creations involved changing the landscape such as "Storm King Wave Field" for  the Storm King Art Center, New York, which had been an open gravel pit.

Lin not only formed outdoors environmental art, but also a traveling museum exhibit titled, "Systematic Landscapes," tracing the wave lengths of the ocean and topography of Earth in undulating shapes.  Quoting from "Boundaries," her autobiographical book, "My affinity has always been toward sculpting the earth. This impulse has shaped my entire body of work."

Today, Lin's latest oeuvre is titled, "What is Missing?" The subject is conservation about those beings who are at risk of extinction.  There's a website http://whatismissing.net/#/home , (maybe slow to load, but very well done)

 a traveling exhibit,

a sculpture at the California Academy of Sciences titled, "Listening Cone," which houses a 20-miute video,

And that, Dear Reader,  is a brief look at what Maya Lin has been doing over these 31 years. Pretty impressive, yes?