February 1992: Constructed Sculpture in Wood, an exhibition of 15 contemporary works from the permanent collection, will open at The Brooklyn Museum February 26 in the Lobby Gallery on the first floor and will remain on view through June 7, 1992. Including sculptures by Garth Evans, Heide Fasnacht, Mel Kendrick, Robert Lobe, and Louise Nevelson, the exhibition is the latest in the Curator’s Choice series.
The term “constructed” relates to the Russian Constructivist movement, which changed the history of modern sculpture and influenced the work of many American artists. It began in the early part of this century when Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin (1895-1956) visited Pablo Picasso’s studio in Paris in 1913 and was fascinated by his first look at Cubism. Later, Tatlin constructed a series of abstract works that are considered the beginnings of Russian Constructivism. The movement’s concerns were with the radical reorganization of sculptural space and volume and corresponded to an ideology based on the attempt to rebuild a society fractured by revolutionary forces.
The sculptures in this exhibition are the heirs to that movement and display their ties to Constructivism, as well as the diverse possibilities the medium of wood affords. Some artists, such as Hans Hokanson and Robert Lobe, choose to ally wood with its natural, organic associations. Others, like Jane Greengold and Susan Leopold, draw on the tradition of wood’s utilitarian and functional purpose. Several of the artists, including Garth Evans and Ray Rapp, choose to paint the wood and are, therefore, less interested in the wood’s natural surface than in the sculpture’s structure.
The exhibition has been organized by Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, who was assisted by Tslilit Ben-Navat Servadio, a curatorial intern from New York University’s Museum Studies Program.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1989 - 1994. 01-06/1992, 029-30.
May 1992: In the latest program in the Meet the Artist series at The Brooklyn Museum, May 16, 1992, at 3 p.m., children ages six through twelve will participate in a gallery tour and hands-on workshop under the direction of a Museum Educator and nationally acclaimed wood sculptor Robert Lobe (American, b.1945). Lobe will discuss some of the pieces in the Museum’s Curator’s Choice exhibition Constructed Sculpture in Wood, an exhibition of 15 contemporary works from the permanent collection including Lobe’s Tree Supporting Boulder (1977). The exhibition is on view in the Lobby Gallery on the first floor through June 7, 1992.
Robert Lobe worked primarily in wood through 1977 and then in both wood and aluminum until 1979, when he turned toward his current aluminum sculptures. He works directly from nature, hammering metal over rocks and trees and maintaining his allegiance to wood through his subject matter of trees, branches, stones, and rocks.
Space is limited; for reservations call (718) 638-5000, ext. 230.
Meet the Artist programs are made possible, in part, by support from The Louis Calder Foundation and the Moses L. Parshelsky Foundation for the Grace Bachrach Memorial Fund.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1989 - 1994. 01-06/1992, 003-4.
