innerspace | interior design blog: 03/14

3/14/14

asian art | chu teh-chun

last week was art week in new york.

previewing sculptures for one of my interior design clients...

the art show at the park avenue armory...

the armory show at piers 92 & 94...

at the armory show, marlborough gallery was previewing an upcoming exhibition of 26 porcelain vases by contemporary chinese painter chu teh-chun.

CHU TEH-CHUN

marlborough gallery | new york

march 19-april 19, 2014

chu teh-chun | vase no. 24 | porcelain hand painted by the artist with highlights in gold | 2007-2008

chu teh-chun | marlborough gallery | new york NY | 19 march-19 april 2014

photo credit lisa walsh | innerspace

the vases were a collaboration between chu teh-chun, the manufacture nationale de sevres, and jean-paul desroches, the chief curator of the chinese department at the musee guimet in paris, where the vases were exhibited in 2009.

the vases were produced at the manufacture nationale de sevres from 29 may 2006 to 11 december 2008

photo credit matte aletti | (c) marlborough gallery/atelier chu teh-chun

all of the vases are oval in form, a classic sevres shape that is reminiscent of chinese blue and white porcelain jars from the yuan dynasty (1271-1368). they are painted with bleu de sevres cobalt pigment, and highlighted with pure gold paint.

photo credit christie's

will you be in new york during asia week?

ASIA WEEK
NEW YORK
march 14-22, 2014

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art | richard serra

when i first walked through joe, the torqued spiral richard serra sculpture in the courtyard of the pulitzer foundation for the arts in st louis MO, where i grew up, i immediately envisioned the sculpture as an event venue, with guests walking through the ribbon of steel on their way to a party in the center.

it seems that i am not unique, because people have told richard serra about practicing yoga, or holding weddings inside his sculptures.

photo credit pulitzer foundation for the arts

serra's sculptures explore the phenomenological experience of space.

the somatic, emotional, and intellectual feelings that you get when you are walking around, through, or beneath his massive sculptures.

while i was working in new york last week, i was visiting art galleries in chelsea. so, i also visited the gagosian gallery, which is showing richard serra: new sculpture from 26 october 2013-15 march 2014.

the exhibition features four monumental sculptures, which represent a new stylistic direction for richard serra. even though the new sculptures are rectilinear, instead of curvilinear, some of the new pieces have precedents in previous pieces.

'as sequences unfold, new forms come out of old pieces.'

-richard serra

richard serra | hours of the day | 1990 | bonnefanten museum | maastricht, netherlands

photo credit wikimedia

richard serra | intervals | weatherproof steel | 24 plates | 2013

richard serra: new sculpture | gagosian gallery | 555 west 24th street | new york NY | 26 october 2013-15 march 2014

photo credit rob mckeever

like hours of the day, intervals is an installation of freestanding rectangular steel plates.

serra describes the components of intervals with mathematical precision.

there are 24 steel plates.

each plate is 9 inches thick.

the plates are positioned 42 inches apart.

there are 3 elevations-4, 5, and 6 feet high.

and, there are 4 lengths-5, 7, 9, and 11 feet long.

the structure feels logical as you walk through the space.

yet, walking through the labyrinth is a dynamic experience.

you can enter or exit anywhere.

and, the elevations rise and fall as you weave in and out.

richard serra | intervals | weatherproof steel | 24 plates | 2013

photo credit lisa walsh | innerspace

some journalists have compared the 24 steel plates in the installation to the tombstones in a cemetery, a comparison that went viral after charlie rose interviewed richard serra on the 27 december 2013 episode of charlie rose: the week.

serra disagrees with this comparison.

he considers his sculptures as dynamic, instead of static structures. he thinks that walking through a rectilinear space, like intervals, makes you feel more grounded than walking through a curvilinear space.

intervals is serra's expression of that experience.

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3/13/14

art | harry bertoia

i love living in san francisco. but, sometimes i miss living in a larger city, like london.
i especially miss the auction previews in mayfair and st. james's.
they seem like pop-up museums.

i missed the harry bertoia selling exhibition at wright in their new york auction gallery from 1/22/14-2/15/14.

so, while i was working in new york last week, i popped in to see bertoia: a celebration of sound and motion, a selling exhibition at sotheby's from 11 february-9 march 2014.

harry bertoia may be best known for his sound sculptures, called sonambients.

'...a sculptural element breaking silence,

it has a voice,

hence, we listen to it,

maybe there is something to say.'

-harry bertoia, 1972

1 | harry bertoia (1915-1978) | eleven monumental sound sculptures, commissioned for the standard oil building plaza | chicago IL | 1975

2 | harry bertoia (1915-1978) | monumental sound sculpture from the standard oil commission | beryllium copper and brass | 1975

photo credits wright 20 and lisa walsh | innerspace

and, for his other welded wire constructions.

3 | harry bertoia (1915-1978) | large spray | stainless steel and steel wire | circa 1965

4 | harry bertoia (1915-1978) | pine tree | stainless steel and steel | circa 1955

photo credits sotheby's

'wire forms have a great range of expressions.

their constructions pertain to space rather than ground,

and their configurations can be light, airy, almost floating.'

-harry bertoia

the sotheby's installation reminded me of the ruth asawa sculpture gallery at the de young museum in san francisco.

asawa's looped and tied wire sculptures explore the relationships between light, shadow, transparency, and form. bertoia's sculptures also incorporate sound and motion.

click here to read my previous post about ruth asawa.

6 | harry bertoia (1915-1978) | dandelion | gilt stainless steel, brass and slate | 1960

photo credits joseph mcdonald, lisa walsh | innerspace, and sotheby's

like bertoia's wire constructions, his bush sculptures are radiant and organic.
almost like they could continue to grow naturally.

'i regard nature as being the strongest influence.'
-harry bertoia, 1957

7 | harry bertoia (1915-1978) | bush | patinated bronze | 1965

8 | harry bertoia (1915-1978) | bush | patinated bronze | 1965

9 | harry bertoia (1915-1978) | bush | patinated bronze | 1965

photo credits lisa walsh | innerspace

i have an asian art background.
so, some of bertoia's naturalistic sculptures remind me of chinese antiquities.
the patina of ancient chinese bronzes...
the textures, forms, and perforations of antique chinese scholar's rocks...

other bertoia sculptures are more metaphysical.

'...my mind would think in terms of cosmic relationships,
such as planetary systems and galaxies...'
-harry bertoia, 1972

don't you think that bertoia's comet sculpture is spectacular?

'the work of harry bertoia defies categorization.
its singular, aggressively personal expression,
sits on the borders between art, design, sculpture, and instrument.'
-reed krakoff, designer and bertoia collector, 2014

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