The next photograph out of the Smithsonian’s box of American art flotsom contains Walt Kuhn and Walt Kuhn is absolute gold.
So. The art behind the face in another photo from the Miscellaneous Box . Photo No. 3. :
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patricia and Phillip Frost.
Smithsonian American Art Museum Bequest of Florence Coulson Davis.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of American Abstract Artists.
Smithsonian American Art Museum gift of Harold Tager Jr.
Ibram Lassaw’s sculptures resembling spiny sea forms were inspired by coral reefs, which he saw as “living sculptures.” To create Banquet, he painstakingly added one drop of melted bronze to another, mimicking the natural growth of the coral. He then added different chemical patinas to give the work a variety of colors that evoke an underwater environment. Lassaw thought this piece “peculiar” because he normally created entirely abstract constructions that did not resemble anything. In the early 1960s, however, he started creating more representational works in response to the declining popularity of his work. (Ibram Lassaw Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; Lassaw, “Perspectives and Reflections of a Sculptor: A Memoir,” Leonardo, January 1968)
“Banquet is one of my most original sculptures – peculiar to me and the style I am known best for – it really is me at my best.” Ibram Lassaw.
Lassaw gave many of his sculptures titles based on stars and galaxies, naming The Hyades for an open cluster of stars in the Taurus constellation. He asserted that he did not intend to create constellations, but saw similarities between the completed sculptures and the arrangement of stars and planets in space. In The Hyades he created the initial shape from welded wire, then gradually built up the form using drips of molten bronze.
“One must think and dream directly with the material. The experience of manipulating material teaches the imagination.” Ibram Lassaw, Leonardo, October 1968.
