Board Tour 6-29-19

Top images: Donut No. 3, Palm at the end of the parking lot, Herritage Schooner, Donald Judd Untitled 1984, Lipski Ball? Ball! Wall? Wall!, Recess, Robert Morris beams, Sugabus.

I am honored to be chosen to lead a tour of board members from Laumeier Sculpture Park in conjunction with a summer picnic gathering they have planned. They want to focus on some of the works closer to the residential entrance. I’ve narrowed to a list of a dozen sculptures for emphasis. I am sharing notes here. I like to focus on the artist and their early art education, and when possible, a bit of insight. Prompts shown in italics are some things I hope will inspire further thought discussion and perhaps a bit of personal research. (I trust the board tour will not leave 'em bored...hee hee)   

Tom Huck b. 1971 Potosi, MO. MFA printmaking Wash U, BFA SIU Carbondale – Evil Prints Bugs. Let’s start here where the founder of Evil Prints, Tom Huck rose to the challenge of bringing his fantastic prints to life as ride-on toys adjacent to the children’s pavilion.  

Donald Lipski b. 1947 Chi BA Univ Wisconsin, MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art MI – Ball?Ball!Wall?Wall! – 55 steel marine buoys. Lipski uses salvaged marine buoys, each weighing 650 pounds, placed just along the tree line. He’s an artist who brings a smile and you can encounter his work in some interesting places (e.g. Grand Central Station has a piece by Lipski that is a tree that hangs upside down with resin that mimics ice and is suspended above an entrance where hundreds of thousands of people pass in the heart of Manhattan).   

Fletcher Benton – b. Jackson, Ohio 1931 BFA Miami University Donut No. 3 Look up Benton and you will discover his art is part of museum and private collections. I was happy to encounter a Fletcher Benton near Nashville, TN at Cheekwood Botanical and Sculpture Park and a few years ago at a small private collection on Edgewater Drive just west of Cleveland.

George Greenamyer b. 1939 Cleveland – BFA Philly coll of art, MFA U Kansas 30+years MA coll of art – Heritage Schooner for Debra Lakin. This artist was a dedicated fan of our sculpture park and responded with heart to the tragic loss of our public relations and marketing director who lost her battle with cancer in her early 40s. Heritage Schooner is full of symbolism and a nod to our history.  

Geoffrey Krawczyk b. Oklahoma City 1978, Site Specific Recess (bricklayers, masons, carpenters, iron workers etc.). In response to an exhibition called Mound City the artist collaborated with union iron and brick workers and others to create a site specific place that pays homage to our region. 

Robert Chambers b. Miami 1958 BFA U Miami MA NYU Sugabus (6,000 pounds of bronze). I wonderful opportunity to revisit Cerberus (the mythical three-headed dog who guards Hades and the molecular shapes of Sugar). 

Donald Judd b. 1928 college Wm & Maty, Art Students League NY, Columbia – Minimalism Untitled 1984 - Specific Objects. A leader of the minimalist movement who himself eschewed the label of minimalist.    

Robert Morris b. KC 1931 studied at U Kansas and KCAI Untitled 1968-69 Morris's 1966 essay "Notes on Sculpture" was among the first to articulate the experiential basis of Minimalist artwork. It called for the use of simple forms and described Minimalist sculptures as dependent on the context and conditions in which they were perceived, essentially upending the notion of the artwork as independent in and of itself.

Alexander Liberman b. 1912 Kiev (now Ukraine) studied Paris, came to NY 1941 Vogue AD, Exec Dir Conde Nast 1941-1962 The Way – 18 Oil Tanks. We are lucky to have this signature piece. Visit Storm King in New York and see more monumental (often red) pieces by Liberman.

Robert Lobe b. 1945 Detroit, BA Oberlin College Palm at the End of the Parking Lot (inspired by Of Mear Being poem by Wallace Stevens. A lovely poem inspired this work that is not a palm and not really at the end of a parking lot.  

Richard Hunt b. 1935 Chi BAE – Art Institute of Chi – Linked Forms, Tower Hybrid. Visit Chicago and if you are walking along Michigan Avenue from East Wacker you may encounter a brilliant piece of public art just off the main retail way before you arrive at Millenium Park.

Arman (Armand Fernandez) b. 1928 Nice La Libellule I fun place to ponder the global nature of art movements. Here a statuesque woman is a deconstruction and combination with gold propeller blades. 

Of Mere Being – Wallace Stevens

The palm at the end of the mind,

Beyond the last thought, rises

In the bronze decor,

A gold-feathered bird

Sings in the palm, without human meaning,

Without human feeling, a foreign song.

You know then that it is not the reason

That makes us happy or unhappy.

The bird sings. Its feathers shine.

The palm stands on the edge of space.

The wind moves slowly in the branches.

The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down

Bottom Five images: Liberman at Storm King in New York State, Lipski in NYC's Grand Central Station, Richard Hunt just off Michigan Avenue in Chicago, a sample of one of Tom Huck's Evil Prints.