European influences

a revival of carving and great respect for an artist's materials Constantin Brâncuşi a revival of carving and great respect for an artist's materials “The people who call my work ‘abstract’ are imbeciles; what they call ‘abstract’ is in fact the purest realism, the reality of which is not represented by external form but by the idea behind it, the essence of the work.” (Brancusi) “What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things,” he says. “It is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface.” (Brancusi)

Constantin Brâncuşi The Prayer 1907 Bronze 111,5 x 35 x 112 cm

Constantin Brâncuşi The Kiss (4th version) 1916 Limestone 23 x 13 1/4 x 10 inches (58.4 x 33.7 x 25.4 cm)

Constantin Brâncuşi Princess X 1915-16 Polished bronze; limestone block 24 5/16 x 15 15/16 x 8 3/4 inches (61.7 x 40.5 x 22.2 cm) Base (three elements): 44 5/16 inches (112.5 cm) Base (Cube): 7 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches (18.4 x 18.4 cm)

Constantin Brancusi Golden Bird 1919/20 (base c. 1922) Bird in Space 1920s to the 1940s birds in flight Maiastra, 1912 (?) Polished brass 73.1 cm high, including base Golden Bird 1919/20 (base c. 1922) Bird in Space 1923 Marble; (with base) H. 56-3/4, Diam. 6-1/2 in. (144.1 x 16.5 cm)

Sculptural Ensemble in Târgu Jiu The Gate of the Kiss travertine (marble) concrete foundation of 5 square meters 5,13 m high, 5,45 m long the pillars have 1,69 m width The Table of Silence The Endless Column (or the Column of Gratitude) 17 rhomboidal cast iron modules in a 29.3 meter high column The modules are fixed on a steel axis The Table of Silence, The Gate of the Kiss and The Endless Column lie on an axis 1,275 meters long, oriented west to east

Alberto Giacometti Existentialism

the void Walking man II 1960 bronze Standing Woman bronze, c. 1955 Standing Woman bronze, c. 1958-9

Henry Moore England organic forms in abstract works hollowed biomorphic shapes Reclining Figure 1957-58 Roman travertine, 16’ long Reclining Figure plaster, 1951 UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization),Paris

Isamu Noguchi Kouros, 1944–45 Marble; H. 117”, base: D. 34”, W. 42” "the encroaching void" This Tortured Earth, 1942 Bronze, 4 x 28 x 28 inches The sculptures were assembled from individual pieces of carved stone, without benefit of adhesives or pinions, by notching and slotting the pieces together Kouros, 1944–45 Marble; H. 117”, base: D. 34”, W. 42” Biomorphic imagery

Isamu Noguchi Early Abstraction Positional Shape, c.1928, brass Globular, 1928, polished brass

Table for A. Conger Goodyear, 1939, rosewood Remembrance, 1944, mahogany

Coffee Table, 1944, glass top and wood base Wood and metal "rudder" dining table and stools, 1944

Area 12 of The Noguchi Museum, Long Island City, New York Sculptures seen from left to right: Figure, Strange Bird (Aluminum), The Kiss, Strange Bird (Slate) and Gregory (Effigy)

"Garden of the Past" at the IBM Headquarters, 1964, Armonk, New York Model of Garden for Lever Brothers Building, New York City, 1952. Unrealized. Memorial garden for Yone Noguchi designed by Isamu Noguchi, 1951-52, Keio University, Tokyo.  "Garden of the Past" at the IBM Headquarters, 1964, Armonk, New York

Delegates Patio, Gardens for UNESCO, 1956-58, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France Overview of Gardens for UNESCO, 1956-58, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France

Sunken Garden for Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza, 1961-64, New York City

Maquette of stage set for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear, London,1955. Martha Graham in Medea's dress from Cave of the Heart, stage set designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1946

Model for Jefferson Memorial Park, 1945 Model for Jefferson Memorial Park, 1945. Collaboration with Edward Durell Stone. Unrealized Bayfront Park, Miami, Florida. Project began in 1979 and is still in progress

Louise Nevelson Homage to 6,000,000 I, 1964 Sky Cathedral. 1958. painted wood (found objects, including moldings, dowels, spindles, chair parts, architectural ornaments, and scroll-sawed fragments) A Surrealist artist might have shared Nevelson's relish for curious bric-à-brac, but might also have arranged such a collection in jarring and disorienting juxtapositions. Nevelson, by contrast, paints every object and box the same dully glowing black, unifying them visually while also obscuring their original identities. The social archaeology suggested by the objects' individual histories and functions, then, is muted but not erased; it is as if we were looking at the wall of a library, in which all of the books had been translated into another language. Sky Cathedral. 1958. 11' 3 1/2" x 10' 1/4" x 18" blending the boundaries between sculpture and assemblage, collage and woodwork

Painted woods – ROYAL TIDE I, 1960 & WHITE VERTICAL WATER, 1972 Painted woods – ROYAL TIDE I, 1960 & WHITE VERTICAL WATER, 1972. Louise Nevelson

David Smith The Banquet 1951 installation at Kykuit industrial materials, especially welded iron and steel exploration of an open, linear structure “Personnages” The Banquet 1951 installation at Kykuit

David Smith Picasso Julio Gonzales Project for a Monument to Guillaume Apollinaire 1962 enlarged version after 1928 original maquette. Painted steel, 6' 6" x 29 7/8" x 62 7/8" Julio Gonzales Woman with a Mirror (Femme au miroir), ca. 1936-37 (cast ca. 1980) Bronze, 80 15/16 x 26 3/8 x 14 3/16 in

David Smith Fish 1950-51 Ancient Household 1945, bronze

David Smith Hudson River Landscape, 1951 Welded steel

David Smith David Smith with Australia, 1951 Sentinel III 1957 Painted steel 83 3/4 x 27 x 16 1/4 in David Smith with Australia, 1951

David Smith Cubi XXVII 1965 Cubi I 1963 Cubi XIX 1964

Alexander Calder Horse 1928 Walnut 15 1/2" x 34 3/4" x 8 1/8" Totem Pole 1929 Wood 65 1/4" x 8 1/4" x 4 3/4"

Cirque Calder 1926-1931 Mixed media 54" x 94 1/4" x 94 1/4"

Vertical Foliage 1941 Sheet metal, wire, and paint 53 1/2" x 66" Untitled 1938 Wood, wire, sheet metal, string, and paint 81" x 96"

Myxomatose Big Bird 1953 Sheet metal and paint 101" x 161"; base: 52 1/2" x 41" Big Bird 1937 Sheet metal, bolts, and paint 88" x 50" x 59"

Louise Bourgeois Quarantania The Blind Leading the Blind 1947–1949 Wood, painted pink 70 3/8 x 96 7/8 x 17 3/8 in. Quarantania 1947-53 Bronze, painted white and blue 80 1/2 x 27 x 27 in

Maman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnsJzSV4mhE&NR=1

Away from Abstract Expressionism new emphasis on the concrete influence of Duchamp - found objects, ‘ready-mades’ POP ART mass media and popular culture

Robert Rauschenberg Painting, Collage and Assemblage 2-D/3-D COMBINES “I try to act in the gap between art and life” To see the strange in the familiar The chaos and unpredictability of modern urban experience is embraced with irony and joy Canyon combine on canvas, 1959, 6’ x 5’ x 2’ (fabric, cardboard, paper, photographs, metal, paint, etc, collage and 3-D)

Canyon, combine on canvas, 1959, 6 x 5 x 2’ (fabric, cardboard, paper, photographs, metal, paint, etc, collage and 3-D)

“A pair of socks is no less suitable to make a painting with “I don’t want a picture to look like something it isn’t. I want it to look like something it is. And I think a picture is more like the real world when it’s made out of the real world.” “A pair of socks is no less suitable to make a painting with than wood, nails, turpentine, oil, and fabric.” --Robert Rauschenberg in Susan Hapgood’s Neo-Dada, Redefining Art 1958-1962, p.18

Robert Rauschenberg Monogram, 1955-59 Combine (stuffed angora goat, a tire, a police barrier, the heel of a shoe, a tennis ball, newspaper clippings and paint) 42 x 64 x 64” "I had to make a surface which invited a constant change of focus and examination of detail. Listening happens in time. Looking also happens in time."