Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA)

July 1, 2009
Section: Lifestyle
Article ID: 12737395

Art al Fresco: Contemporary Sculpture
 Peter McLaughlin, Special to The Eagle

Thursday, July 02 STOCKBRIDGE -- The day after the ferocious ice storm hit western Massachusetts in December 2008, the sculptor Susan Flores went outside her home in Plainfield to assess the damage and found among the thousands of downed trees the makings of a work of art.

"It was very sweet," she says. "There were two trees -- battered by the wind and ice -- standing side by side in a pose that looked to me like an elderly couple that had weathered the storm together. If the trees had arms, I could envision them holding hands."

The poignant sculpture Flores made of the two trees -- nine and a half feet tall, of rusted steel, bronze and stainless steel -- is one of 22 works of art that will make up this year's Contemporary Sculpture Show at Chesterwood, Daniel Chester French's historic estate.

Denise Markonish, curator at Mass MoCA and guest curator of the Chesterwood show, said "you can't ask for a better setting than Chesterwood for a show of outdoor sculpture. It's got everything from deep woods to open meadows, pond-side locations and winding paths that open up to long views of the mountains."

Each sculpture in the show has been carefully sited so the work of art and the setting are in harmony.

"This is not plop-art," said Markonish, "where the artist makes a piece in his studio and it's dropped randomly in a setting where it clearly doesn't belong."

The show is held in a place where Daniel Chester French took conventional sculpture to new heights. It was here he carved his masterpiece -- the seated Lincoln that looks out on the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

None of the artists exhibiting at Chesterwood today, however, could be called conventional. Their work shows stunning originality -- a degree of creativity that pushes sculpture into new and uncharted territory.

Brian Auwarter from Greenfield Center, N.Y., finds his art supplies at Home Depot. He buys heavy gauge galvanized steel screen, paints it with a roller and bends it into artistic shapes with amazing optical qualities.

"Overlaid screens," he said, " have a certain atmospheric look. From one angle the sculpture may look hard-edged and geometric, but as you move to one side the work just vaporizes, turns cloudlike. Because there's no solid surface, the light is free to penetrate the screen and create magical illusions."

Auwarter's works take the form of four three-foot cubes, painted blue and set on concrete pedestals.

"Being outdoors," said Auwarter, "totally enhances the look of these cubes. The rain makes them glow. Snow, ice and frost make them look even more ethereal."

Tom Gottsleben's sculpture is a huge open knot made of bluestone, stainless steel and crystal glass. It's one continuous looping, four-foot high, 500-pound "rope" that curves gracefully around and back on itself in the configuration of an actual knot. It looks as though one tug on the end would send the sculpture into a tight ball. The crystal, which Gottsleben has shipped to his home in Saugerties, N.Y., from China, is hand chiseled -- as are the bluestone blocks -- and laced over the armature much as beads are laced over a string.

The result is a piece that seems to drink in the light and release it with an intense pinkish glow.

Richard Garrison, from Delmar, N.Y., has taken his work to a place that borders on landscape art. He has covered a large section of the Chesterwood lawn with black plastic in the shape of the shadow of his house that falls across his own lawn. When he takes away the plastic after two and a half weeks, he expects the dead grass to show the silhouette in a new and unusual medium.

What will it look like?

"I have no idea," said Garrison; "we'll all find out together."

As Lin Lisberger installed her sculpture -- a hand carved wooden boat with a 15-foot high ladder rising from the center -- she explained that it represented the way she felt when her son left their house in Gorham, ME, and went off to college.

"It symbolizes the journey he was embarking on and the challenges he'd face along the way," she said.

She also expressed a feeling that nearly all the other artists articulated: "Part of the thrill of exhibiting at Chesterwood is the presence -- in spirit and tangible art -- of Daniel Chester French. It's inspiring," she said, "to be in the place where this giant of American sculpture lived and worked and to step into his studio and see models of the seated Lincoln and dozens of other famous works. It's an honor to be included here."

Each Sunday for the 17-week run of the show, a different sculptor will conduct a workshop, demonstrating how he or she accomplishes an artistic task or describing how the sculpture in the show was conceived and constructed.

"We're also providing a cell phone tour of the sculptures," said Donna Hassler, director of Chesterwood. "People just dial a prearranged number, and as they go from sculpture to sculpture they hear the artists describe their own work."

Hassler, as the new director who came on board last August, is a strong proponent of building bridges between the artists and the public.

"How many times," she asked rhetorically, "have you seen a piece of art and wished the artist was there, looking over your shoulder like this, to explain what the work is all about?"