Storm King Art
Center is located in New York’s Hudson River Valley. The Art
Center, which is approximately an hour drive from NYC, encompasses five hundred
acres and includes over one hundred sculptures.1 The wide open-spaces are a perfect setting for colossal sculptures by some of
the most famous twentieth-century artists. In fact, the collection is an art history
primer for “Who’s Who?” in modern art.
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City on the High Mountain, Louise Nevelson. 1983 (steel
sculpture on left)
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Wide open
fields of Storm King with sculptures by:
Menashe
Kadishman, Suspended, 1977 (center
foreground)
Alexander
Liberman, Adam, 1970 (left hilltop)
Alice
Aycock, Three-Fold Manifestation, 1987
(right hilltop)
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The Art
Center was established in 1960 with the donation of a museum building that
included indoor galleries.2 Near the entrance to the museum is a large, black steel sculpture by Russian-born
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988). She moved to the United States with her parents at
the age of five. Her maiden name, Berliawsky, was changed when she married Charles
Nevelson. After the birth of their son, she pursued formal artistic education
at the New York Art Students League before travelling to Europe for additional
studies.3 Louise had quite a prolific career that gained momentum after World War II.
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XI Books III Apples,
David
Smith. 1959.
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Another section of the sculpture park includes
seven works by David Smith (1906-65).
His mature style is characterized by geometric, cubic masses of
stainless steel that are asymmetrically balanced. The steel surface, as evident in his
sculpture XI Books III Apples, is also
abraded to deflect sunlight. This surface treatment produces a dazzling,
shimmering quality that makes the solidity of form appear to dissolve.
In another
area, the sculpture Momo Taro by
Japanese-American Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was intentionally created to
encourage interactivity. Viewers are
allowed to touch this stone, which is an exception to the rule in most museum
collections. Noguchi celebrated his Japanese ancestry with this sculpture,
since the title of the work refers to a Japanese folk tale.
Mark di Suvero’s welded-steel construction, My Father, My Father, is an open form
that sparks imagination, and based on the title may raise questions about the
relationship the artist had with his own father. Other major artists included
in the collection are: Alexander Calder; Nam June Paik; Henry Moore; Barbara
Hepworth; Richard Hunt; Kenneth Snelson; George Rickey; Richard Serra; Ursula
von Rydingsvaard; Menashe Kadishman; Alexander Liberman; and Alice Aycock (just
to name a few).
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Momo Taro, Isamu
Noguchi. 1977-78 |
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Mon Père, Mon Père, Mark di Suvero. 1973-75
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A machine aesthetic of twentieth-century industrial
fabrication, merged with Abstract Expressionism is apparent in many of the
outdoor sculptures. Art and nature enthusiasts will enjoy the opportunity to
combine the serenity of a peaceful mountain with the enjoyment of the visual
arts.
1. Storm King Art Center. 2011. http://www.stormking.org (accessed May 14, 2013).
2. Ibid.
3. Duane and Sarah Preble, and Patrick Frank. Artforms, 7th ed. NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.