Abakanowicz, Bourgeois, Caro
Marlborough Chelsea, New York
September 18 - October 25, 1997
For its inaugural exhibition, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, presents sculptures by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois and Sir Anthony Caro.
The gallery's inaugural exhibition presents one work each by Abakanowicz, Bourgeois and Caro. Each of these works through their physical and conceptual presence, commands and defines the gallery's architectural spaces, creating three interrelated but markedly different environments. These sculptures are of such independent and forceful character that they dominate their environments through the drama of a physical discourse that captures the viewer as if he or she had stumbled into a theater and onto a stage occupied by giants.
Magdalena Abakanowicz channels her deeply personal feelings about loss, isolation, displacement and regeneration as experienced throughout her childhood in Poland into her sculpture. Gouged and smooth bronze surfaces display the marks of the artist's fingers and nails; her work becomes an expressionist rendering in three-dimensional form of angst, aggression and strength. Rather than representing a single historical moment, group or tragedy, Magdalena Abakanowicz says that her work "is about the human condition in general". Backward Seated Figures (1992-93), comprised of 20 bronze forms, suggests a crowd of people seated on the floor, hunched over slightly. The air between each sculpture is heavy and fraught with tension; the installation creates a mood which fills the gallery and pushes at the walls, enveloping the viewer. The installation at Marlborough Chelsea will be the first showing of this piece in the United States.
A native of France, American sculptor Louise Bourgeois' work developed initially in the 1940s through her exposure to the Surrealists. Her later works reflect a continuing interest in feminism and forms related to the body. While many of her recent projects have explored and represented personal recollections of childhood memories and experiences through seemingly fragile and delicate forms, Eyes (1995), included in this exhibition, is monumentally forceful in both its physical and conceptual presence. The pair of massive granite spherical eyes with hemispherical irises captures everything that falls within their gaze. At the direction of Louise Bourgeois, the eyes have been positioned at a distance apart to reflect the proportions of a monolithic face. The eyes are positioned to create a field of vision and depth of focus that extends beyond the walls of the gallery into the city - the sculpture is both a corporeal anchor and conceptual window.
British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, who recently joined Marlborough for his North American representation, shapes mass and the spaces which his forms inhabit in a powerful yet carefully constructed way. His new work created specifically for this exhibition, Wareham Ziggurat (1997), rises over 12 feet high with its towering stepped shape. Ascending from floor to ceiling, the work forces one's attention upwards into the spaces that most sculpture does not reach. Because of the internal architectural "rooms" within the sculpture, the spectator is drawn inside and therefore deals with both external and internal notions of architectural form and space. The giant railroad sleepers from which the sculpture is made are stacked high like a vast pyramid, giving the work a physicality that is primal, ancient and mysteriously ritualistic in character.
Abakanowicz, Bourgeois, Caro will be followed by a group show curated by Raymond Foye, on view from November 1 through November 29, 1997. An exhibition of work by Spanish sculptor Francisco Leiro opens December 3, and will remain on view through January 3, 1998.
Marlborough Chelsea
211 West 19th Street, New York, NY
www.malgoroughgallery.com
