Antony Gormley has unveiled a new sculptural installation in Florence, featuring more than 100 of the artist’s sculptures arranged in various patterns and lines around the historic Forte di Belvedere. “They reflect the shadow side of any idea of human progress, confronting the viewer with an image redolent of the conflict of the past century,” Gormley says. (more…)
A pair of classic bronze works have been revealed to be the work of Michelangelo, after an extensive research undertaking in Cambridge, a discovery that would make the sculptures the only surviving bronzes by the artist in the world. “They are clearly masterpieces,” says Victoria Avery, keeper of applied arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum. “The modelling is superb, they are so powerful and so compelling, so whoever made them had to be superb.” (more…)
Giuseppe Penone, Albero porta—cedro / Door Tree—Cedar (2012), © Giuseppe Penone. Courtesy Archivio Giuseppe Penone. Photography by Josh White/JWPictures.com
In his current show Ramificazioni del Pensiero / Branches of Thought, on view at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills, Giuseppe Penone continues his exploration into the heart of the natural materials that compose his work. Focusing on the interplay between man and nature, Penone draws human elements out of the wood and marble he sculpts, obviating an undercurrent of commonality between the human figure and the stoic forms of tree and stone. (more…)
Giuseppe Penone, Scrigno (2007), all images courtesy Gagosian Gallery
On view at Gagosian London is an exhibition of Giuseppe Penone’s large scale works from 2006-2008 as well as some more recent pieces. Entitled Circling, the exhibition includes 2 major works, Scrigno (Casket), 2007, and Sigillo (Seal), 2008, depicting the structure of trees, specifically: “the tree as a being that memorializes the feats of its existence” The display will remain on view through May 31, 2014.
Sherrie Levine, Bird Mask (2014) via Osman Can Yerebakan
Paula Cooper Gallery is currently presenting new works by one of the most iconic artists of The Pictures Generation, Sherrie Levine. The artist has been reinterpreting the set notions of ownership and authenticity in creative work for more than 30 years, while simultaenously commenting on the canonization process of art history. Inspired by the pioneer Constructivist Aleksander Rodchenko’s three panel monochrome from 1921, Levine’s new exhibition, Red Yellow Blue, refers to the reduction of a painting to its most minimalistic forms and fundamental colors. One of the most notable artists of a generation engaged with appropriation and representation of consumeristic and media-centric production, Levine’s works in the exhibition investigate the essence of art-making, and its creative limitations with reference to certain precedents. Regarding art history as a circular form instead of a linear one, Levine goes back to the roots of art production to redefine set concepts on issues such as death and mysticism throughout the works on view. (more…)
Urs Fischer at 104 Delancey (Installation View), via Art Observed
Following his retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles last summer, Urs Fischer returns to New York City this spring with a pair of shows that address that artist’s recent works, while turning his practice towards questions of authorship, originality and context.
Urs Fischer, the last supper (2014), via Art Observed (more…)
Darren Almond, Fullmoon at Volcanic Archipelago (2013)
Photographer Darren Almond is currently exhibiting a selection of works from both his “Fullmoon” and “Present Form” series, alongside a group of small bronze sculptures at White Cube’s location in the Bermondsey neighborhood of London. The works will remain on view through April 13, 2014. Over a period of 13 years, Almond has worked on a photographic series entitled Fullmoon picturing scenes from every continent, all taken under the light of a full moon. Utilizing long exposure times and well-placed cameras, the images capture details within the darkness that the human eye is normally unable to see, all while adding an eerily surreal atmosphere to the environments on view, stuck somewhere between the bright light of day and dark night. These works represent a continuing effort by Almond to follow themes of geology, myth, and history alongside his fascinations with time and light themselves.
Darren Almond, To Leave a Light Impression (2013), all photos via White Cube
A series of sculptures cast from original plasters by Constantin Brancusi have reignited debate over the authenticity of works created after the artist’s death. Brancusi in New York, currently on view at Paul Kasmin, is showing 5 such works, cast between 1992 and 2010 from the artist’s original casts, and with the permission of the artist’s estate, but some critics are calling foul, saying any work made after the Romanian’s death could only be considered a replica. “There are always going to be people who say they’re 100% against it. I can only help guide you with what’s fact—I can’t decide somebody else’s morals for them,” says Kasmin. “What we want to come of this is to know that Brancusi, like many other great artists’ estates, is open for business.” (more…)
Kevin Francis Gray, 12 Chambers (2013) Courtesy Pace London
On view at Pace London through mid January is an exhibition highlighting new sculptures by Irish artist Kevin Francis Gray. These realistic, detailed works were crafted from bronze and marble in a traditional manner uncommonly seen in the contemporary art world. Included in the display are five double life-size bronze heads, a group of twelve life-size nude figures cast in bronze, and a life-size sculpture of two white marble figures alluding to the tradition of covering of dead bodies in Judeo-Christian cultures.
Georg Baselitz, BDM Gruppe (2012), via Thaddeus Ropac
On view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac’s recently opened Paris Pantin location is an exhibition of new sculptures and paintings by German artist Georg Baselitz. The sculptures are sculpted from wood and cast in bronze, and the paintings are part of his new series in black. (more…)
Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Ona has received considerable attention since its installation earlier this fall at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Bloomberg spoke with the artist recently, discussing its construction, her views towards her work, and the inspiration behind the towering sculpture. “I knew, if I wanted to be in front of it, I needed to have some presence, some power. So I made a piece that was sand cast in bronze. I wanted the sand casting because it would be more matte. I hate shiny, glossy things.” The artist says. (more…)
Artist Giuseppe Penone will bring a trio of monumental bronze tree sculptures to Madison Square Park this fall and winter, exploring the relationships between humanity and nature through art. Meticulous reproductions of 40 foot high trees, Ideas of Stone marks Madison Square Park’s 26th exhibition of outdoor sculpture. “A tree summarizes in an exemplary way the contrast between two forces: the force of gravity and the weight of life we are part of. The need and the search for balance, which exists in every living being to counteract the force of gravity, is evident in every step and in every small action of our lives.” Penone said in a statement. (more…)
Marc Quinn, All the Time in the World (Installation View), via Mary Boone
Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea is currently exhibiting four new bronze sculptures and one oil painting, which together make up an exhibition by Marc Quinn entitled All the Time in the World. The display was opened to the public on May 4th, during the busy weeks around Frieze New York, and will remain on view through June 29th, 2013. The exhibition also corresponds with Quinn’s major retrospective of works currently on view at the Fondation Giorgio Cini in Venice this summer. (more…)
Wim Delvoye, Suppo, (2010), via Sperone Westwater
Belgian artist Wim Delvoye has continually pushed his signature brand of surrealist social critique over the past 30 years, creating works that subvert societal norms with a trenchantly humorous twist. Often using the forms of classical art and architecture, Delvoye twists and bends these forms to create new dialogues with his medium, his subjects, and his own era. Cultivating a number of recent laser-cut works in steel and bronze, Sperone Westwater is currently presenting a minimal, yet potent review of Delvoye’s current work, examining his ongoing explorations of gothic architecture, religious symbolism, and modern psychology. (more…)
Giuseppe Penone, Le Corps D’Un Jardin (Installation View), via Marian Goodman
Leading up to a major installation of sculptures at the Chateau de Versailles in Paris, Giuseppe Penone and Marian Goodman Gallery are presenting a selection of past works by the artist, exhibiting a selection of works playing on themes of nature, flux, space and texture. Consisting of large sculptures and wall-mounted works, Penone explores the interplay of gesture and movement within the relatively static forms of the artistic practice, and the elegant exchange between nature and man’s depictions of it.
Alexander Calder, Calder After the War (Installation View), courtesy of Pace London
Currently on view at Pace Gallery London, from April 19th through June 7th, is an exhibition of over fifty works by Alexander Calder, created between 1945 and 1949, one of his most well-known periods during which he pioneered many of his sculptural abstractions through movement in three dimensions, particularly via his mobiles and stabiles.
With the opening of the Chelsea Flower Show in London, British artist Marc Quinn has unveiled his large-scale bronze orchid sculpture, commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society. The flower work took Quinn six months to complete, and is painted with 18 layers of color. “Hopefully, the flowers and the sculpture blend. There is a sense of real nature and artificial nature, although having seen the transformation of this place from a muddy field it is not so clear what is real nature.” Quinn said. (more…)
Tracey Emin’s Roman Standard, a single bronze bird mounted atop a 13 foot pole, has been unveiled in New York’s Petrosino Square. A collaboration between the Art Production Fund, White Cube and Lehmann Maupin, the piece is intended as a point of contemplation. “Most public sculptures are a symbol of power which I find oppressive and dark,” said Emin. “I wanted something that had a magic and an alchemy, something which would appear and disappear and not dominate.” (more…)
The Two Zodiac Heads to be Returned to China, via China Radio International
French president François Hollande has embarked on his first visit to China, accompanied by a number of high-profile French business heads. Among them is François-Henri Pinault, the Kering CEO and Christie’s head who has brought a gift of two bronze statues looted from the Beijing Summer Palace in 1860. (more…)
Zhang Xiaogang (Installation View), via Pace Gallery
Currently featured at Pace Gallery’s space at 510 West 25th Street, is the first series of Zhang Xiaogang‘s painted bronze sculptures. At first glance it appears simply as a 3 dimensional representation of Xiaogang’s famous Bloodline characters, however there are in fact numerous dialogues in the works as well as the artist’s practise, that deepen and darken the situation.
Ugo Rondinone, Pure Moonlight (Installation View), via Almine Rech
Almine Rech Gallery Paris is currently hosting its 7th installation of work by the Swiss-born Ugo Rondinone, exploring the interplay of time and creative practice on the artist. Titled Pure Moonlight, the show consists of a series of Rondinone’s concentric “date paintings,” as well another set of small-scale candle sculptures.
With prices for copper more than quadrupling in the last decade, sculptors are thinking twice before using bronze in their works, instead looking to cheaper materials and more economically sound production techniques in an effort to cut costs. Foundries are also feeling an impact on their bottom line as their customers explore other options in the U.S. and abroad.
Image: Jasper Johns, Ballantine Ale Cans, 1960 via Artinfo
The Royal Academy of Arts is currently exhibiting over 150 sculptures around the theme of bronze. The selection of works spans the medium’s five-millennial lifespan, which spread from the Near East to Europe and China. Illustrating the complex and nuanced history of bronze as a medium, intertwining historical relevance with artistic production, the exhibition sheds light on the evolution of civilization in the context of these two undercurrents.
Image: Giovanfrancesco Rustici, The Pharisee, St. John the Baptist and The Levite from The Sermon of St. John the Baptist, 1511, Royal Academy of Arts
A 2.5 ton bronze bull by sculptor Arturo Di Modica, similar to the Wall Street Bull by the same artist, has been positioned near the front of NYSE Euronext (NYX)’s Amsterdam “as an antidote to Europe’s debt crisis.” “Europe is in an economic crisis. Think positive! Together we will go up!” read leaflets that were handed out by a spokesman for Di Modica.
