STOCKBRIDGE, MA Chesterwood Margaret French wrote a line or two a day in the diaries that she kept in the early 20th century. French was the only child of Mary and Daniel Chester French, the sculptor best known for the Lincoln Memorial. He and his wife and daughter spent as much time as possible at his Berkshire summer estate, Chesterwood, until his death in 1931. Margaret’s entries in the diaries were terse and factual. On August 9, 1905, she wrote: “Went down to the store in morning. Played tennis in aft. And drove over to Stockbridge.
Gianluca Bianchino: Dispersing Form and Energy
Gianluca Bianchino has quietly made a name for himself as a sculptor in New York area circles. He has done so despite the fact that his studio remains in New Jersey; although, as he points out, he has made a point of moving closer to New York City, holding a studio first in Montclair—he received
Unnatural Histories of the Natural: A Conversation with Tomer Sapir
In July 2008, an animal carcass of unknown identity washed up on the shores of Ditch Plains, New York. This object, which became known as the “Montauk Monster,” has proved to be a major catalyst in the evolution of Tomer Sapir’s work.
Creative and Destructive Force: A Conversation with Andrea Mastrovito
Deep wisdom meets true child-like creativity in Andrea Mastrovito’s work. Eternal human questions-Who are we? From where do we come? Where are we going?-are raised and developed with honest simplicity, the only answer lying in an acceptance of the natural life cycle.
Dorie Millerson: The Matter of Scale
Think of string—of textiles—used in a sculptural way, and chances are you’ll hearken back to Eva Hesse and fiberglass-coated string pieces like Right After (1969) untidily looping down into space from hooks suspended in the ceiling; or what Lucy Lippard termed its “ugly” antecedent, Untitled (1970), an abstract snarl of latex-coated rope and string that
Personal Curiosity: A Conversation with Kiki Smith
Kiki Smith was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in 2016. For a full list of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, click here. Kiki Smith’s pencil hardly leaves the paper as she simultaneously answers questions, responds to a stream of assistants, and decides what to have for lunch.
Bernar Venet: Selling the Wind
Bernar Venet was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in 2016. For a full list of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, click here. When 26-year-old Bernar Venet met Marcel Duchamp in New York in 1967, he boasted that his works were more radical than those made by the father of the readymade.
Matt Siber
Chicago DePaul Art Museum Advertisements tell people what to think, what to buy, and how to act. But not Matt Siber’s “Idol Structures.” The Chicago-based artist’s photographs and large-scale sculptures encouraged viewers to consider the structures of mass media communication and advertisements found in public spaces.
Robert Irwin
BEACON, NEW YORK Dia:Beacon Robert Irwin’s “site-conditioned” installation Excursus: Homage to the Square3 is a navigable optical illusion of 18 interconnected rooms divided by floor-to-ceiling semi-transparent scrims. Originally commissioned by Dia Center for the Arts for its former space in Chelsea in 1998, the new iteration engages with the architectural and lighting specificities of its redesigned space in Beacon. Taking cues from his surroundings, Irwin manipulates the existing building to form a Gesamtkunstwerk out of an old box factory turned museum.
Samara Golden
NEW YORK MoMA PS1 A display of silver Escher-inspired stairs leading nowhere, some absurdly upside down, some supporting tensely poised silver wheelchairs (wheels both down and up), burst like a hallucination upon visitors to PS1. Without exception, gallery-goers whipped out their cell phones, because no one could be sure that their dazzled faculties of perception would retain the scene without a photo. Samara Golden’s The Flat Side of the Knife (2014–15) conjured a witty, dream-like atmosphere that toyed with the subconscious while tweaking our certainty about what we think we see.
