Joseph Beuys does not age well. His genius could kindle a flame in a “revolutionary age,” yet at the inception of the third millennium, he appears literally buried in his private mythologies, distilled from life events, and centered on his pet animals as exponents of purity and victirns of civilization.
Planning for Happenstance: Dewitt Godfrey
If the sculptor DeWitt Godfrey were to write a manifesto, it might begin with the saying, “Let the chips fall where they may.” …see the full feature in May’s magazine.
Responsive Construction: A Conversation with Bruce Beasley
Born in Los Angeles in 1939, Bruce Beasley is recognized as one of the most innovative sculptors on the West Coast …see the full feature in May’s magazine.
Fire Medicine: A Conversation with Cai Guo-Qiang
The son of a historian and a painter, Cai Guo-Qiang was born in Quanzhou, China, in 1957, and trained in stage design before moving to Japan in 1987. …see the full feature in May’s magazine.
Movement in Progress: A Conversation with Arnaldo Pomodoro
Novecento, 2000–02. Bronze, 21 x 7 meters diameter. Photo: © Alberto Piovano, Milan. Laura Tansini: How did it happen that the City of Rome commissioned Novecento? Arnaldo Pomodoro: It was in 1998, when Francesco Rutelli was mayor of Rome, at the re-installation of my work Sfera Grande in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after its
Photographs of Public Artworks by Anish Kapoor and Christo & Jeanne-Claude: Copyright Infringement?
Over the past 30-plus years of the public art movement, artworks in public settings have added beauty, interest and, in some instances, controversy to the civic arena. For photographers and plein air painters, however, they may also be adding the threat of a lawsuit for copyright infringement.
Nek Chand Saini: Sculpting From Scrap
I stood surrounded by hundreds of strange beings, fantastical creatures arrayed around me in every direction. …see the full feature in April’s magazine.
The Weight of Memory: Zero Higashida
Sculpture has likely served a memorial purpose since its beginnings. It fulfills the melancholic ritual of acknowledging the dead, whose claim on us is as much physical as metaphysical. …see the full feature in April’s magazine.
“Public Art is Dangerous”: Dennis Oppenheim
Over the course of a much-honored, 40-year career, Dennis Oppenherm has created sculpture, conceptual art, Land art, and public art, with a long string of public art successes installed throughout the United States and Europe. …see the full feature in April’s magazine.
Tom Otterness: Public Art and the Civic Ideal in the Postmodern Age
One Sunday in late November near dusk, a family walks down Broadway toward Lincoln Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. As they approach 65th Street, the mother, a casually but stylishly dressed woman, says, “There’s a sculpture over here I don’t quite understand, but I think it’s hysterically funny.”