Mark di Suvero explained

Mark di Suvero
Birth Name:Marco Polo di Suvero
Birth Date:18 September 1933
Birth Place:Shanghai, China
Known For:Sculpture
Movement:Abstract expressionism
Spouse:
  • Maria Teresa Capparotta

Marco Polo di Suvero (born September 18, 1933), better known as Mark di Suvero, is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient.

Early life and education

Di Suvero was born in Shanghai, China, to Matilde Millo di Suvero and Vittorio di Suvero (later known as Victor E.), both Italians of Sephardic Jewish descent.[1] [2] [3] [4] He was one of four children, the eldest being Victor di Suvero.[1] His father was a U.S. Navy attaché for the Italian government, and the family lived in Shanghai until his father was relocated to Tientsin shortly after the birth of the family's last son in 1936.[3]

With the outbreak of World War II, di Suvero immigrated to San Francisco with his family in February 1941 aboard the S.S. President Cleveland.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Di Suvero attended City College of San Francisco from 1953 to 1954, and then the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1954 to 1955. He began creating sculptures while at the University of California, Santa Barbara after learning that he was unable to make an original contribution as part of his philosophy major. He transferred to the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with a B.A. in philosophy in 1957.[1] [2] [5] [6]

Career

After graduating from college, di Suvero moved to New York City in 1957 to begin a career as a sculptor. He worked part-time in construction and began to incorporate wood and metal from demolition sites into his work.[2] [6]

Di Suvero gained recognition among art critics with his first solo exhibit at the Green Gallery in Manhattan in the fall of 1960. The editor of Arts Magazine wrote, "From now on nothing will be the same. One felt this at di Suvero's show. Here was a body of work at once so ambitious and intelligent, so raw and clean, so noble and accessible, that it must permanently alter our standards of artistic effort."[7]

On March 26, 1960, while working at a construction site, he was involved in a near-fatal elevator accident, resulting in a broken back and severe spinal injuries. Treating physicians initially believed he would be unable to walk again. While in rehabilitation, however, he learned to work with an arc welder, which he used in later pieces. His recovery took four years. By 1965, he was able to walk without assistance. He is one of the 16 artists featured in , a book that featured the accident and the subsequent effect it had on his health.[2] [3] [5] [6]

Di Suvero was a founding member of the Park Place Gallery in 1963 with Forrest Myers, Leo Valledor, Peter Forakis, and others. The gallery closed in July 1967.[6] [8] [9]

Di Suvero protested the Vietnam War, and was arrested twice. He left the United States in 1971.[1] [10] During his four-year self-exile, he exhibited his works in the Netherlands and Germany, taught at the Università Internazionale dell'Arte, and lived in Chalon-sur-Saône, France where he maintained one of his studios on a barge until 1989.[1] [4] [11] His French barge, Rêve de signes, has since been turned into La Vie des Formes, an atelier for emerging artists, which has been moored at Montceau-les-Mines since 2009.[1] [12] [13]

In 1975, his sculptures were exhibited in the Tuileries Garden in Paris,[7] the first living artist to hold an exhibition there.[14] He later returned to the United States and opened a studio in Petaluma, California in 1975.[11] While the Petaluma studio is still active, di Suvero moved to New York City and opened a studio there.[10] [11]

In 1976, the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan housed a retrospective exhibition of di Suvero's smaller structures, while the city of New York exhibited some of his larger sculptures all around town.[7] His 1966 sculpture, Praise for Elohim Adonai, was erected in front of the Seagram Building. In January 2024, the work was permanently installed adjacent to David Chipperfield's East Building for the Saint Louis Art Museum.

He founded the Athena Foundation in 1977 and Socrates Sculpture Park in 1986, both of which function to assist artists.[1] [6] In 2019, his tallest piece, E=MC 2, was moved from France to the Storm King Art Center in upstate New York.[14] [15]

Personal life

Di Suvero lives in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City with his second wife, Kate D. Levin, who he married in 1993, and their daughter.[1] [10] Levin, a former City College of New York teacher, served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs from 2002 to 2013, and has worked in the Ed Koch and Michael Bloomberg administrations.[16] Di Suvero was previously married to architect Maria Teresa Caparrotta, whom he met while living in Italy, but later divorced.[1]

Art

His early works were large outdoor pieces that incorporated wooden timbers from demolition buildings, tires, scrap metal, and structural steel. This exploration has transformed over time into a focus on H-beams and heavy steel plates. Many of the pieces contain sections that are allowed to swing and rotate giving the overall forms a considerable degree of motion. He prides himself on his hands-on approach to the fabrication and installation of his work. Di Suvero pioneered the use of a crane as a sculptor's working tool.[17]

His style is associated with the abstract expressionism movement but directly evokes the spirit of the Russian post-revolution constructivism. Constructivism is strongly associated with concepts of a utopian socialist reconstruction but came crashing down when the Stalin and Hitler empires failed. Di Suvero is the first artist post-war to revive the constructivist movement. The sculptures can be touched, and they are resistant enough to be climbed on.[7]

Some of his work includes:

Di Suvero's sculptures and career were the subjects of the 1977 film, . The film was produced by François De Menil and by art historian Barbara Rose, and it featured music composed by Philip Glass.[33] The film was released as a DVD in 2012.[34]

In May 2013, some of his most famous sculptures were exhibited in Crissy Field in San Francisco.[35]

Critics

Some critics deny the novelty of di Suvero's art, arguing he just inflated an established concept to greater dimensions. In 1975, William Rubin argued he merely vulgarized the style of abstract expressionism set forth by Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline.[7] When Pax Jerusalemme was installed in a prominent spot in front of the Legion of Honor in 2000, Kenneth Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle dismissed it as "mediocre."[36] But remarking on the installation of the artist's colossal E=MC 2 at the Storm King Art Center, Jason Farago in the New York Times wrote that di Suvero "understands better than almost any artist the distinction between size and scale—and this serene work, breathing easy in Storm King's largest field, feels as approachable as a family member."[37]

Honors and awards

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mark di Suvero and di Suvero family papers, 1934-2005 . aaa.si.edu . . March 9, 2015.
  2. Web site: Mark di Suvero Luce Artist Biography . aaa.si.edu . . March 9, 2015.
  3. Book: Monte, James K. . November 1975 . Mark di Suvero . . . March 9, 2015.
  4. News: July 16, 1978 . Mark di Suvero, Art World's 'Last Heroic Figure' . . 71 . 270 . . 37–38 . March 9, 2015.
  5. Web site: NEW PARTNERSHIP LAUNCHES SFMOMA'S OFF-SITE PROGRAMMING WITH MAJOR OUTDOOR EXHIBITION OF MARK DI SUVERO'S SCULPTURES NEAR GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE . December 12, 2012 . sfmoma.org . . March 9, 2015.
  6. Web site: Heinz Awards Mark di Suvero biography . heinzawards.net . . March 9, 2015.
  7. Hilton Kramer, A playful storm of sculpture, Nytimes.com, 25 January 1976
  8. Web site: Art and Space: Park Place and the beginning of the Paula Cooper Gallery . Kirwin . Liza . aaa.si.edu . . March 10, 2015.
  9. Web site: Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York . blantonmuseum.org . . March 10, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150402144228/http://blantonmuseum.org/exhibitions/details/reimagining_space_the_park_place_gallery_group_in_1960s_new_york/ . April 2, 2015 . dead .
  10. News: Dawson . Jessica . September 2, 2014 . At 80, Sculptor Mark Di Suvero Is Still Mixing It Up in New York . . New York City . March 9, 2015.
  11. News: Bennett . Don . June 5, 2013 . Petaluma home to famous artist . . . March 10, 2015.
  12. Castro . Jan Garden . June 2005 . To Make Meanings Real: A Conversation with Mark di Suvero . . . 24 . 5 . March 10, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160117082647/http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag05/june_05/disuvero/disuvero.shtml . January 17, 2016 . dead .
  13. News: Roux . Camille . Berry . Gilles . May 5, 2013 . Bateau logement pour artistes . . fr . Chalon-sur-Saône, France . March 10, 2015.
  14. Karen Michell, Sculptor Mark Di Suvero Creates Joy Out Of Steel, Npr.org, 20 October 2019
  15. Gabriella Angeleti, Storm King installs sky-high sculpture by Mark di Suvero, Theartnewspaper.com, 17 July 2019
  16. Web site: Kate D. Levin named first fellow of National Center for Arts Research at SMU . February 11, 2014 . smu.edu . . March 9, 2015.
  17. May 2013 . Mark Di Suvero's Path to Steel . 10 July 2015.
  18. https://art.famsf.org/mark-di-suvero/pre-columbian-2000170 Pre-Columbian
  19. Web site: Mark di Suvero Artworks & Famous Sculptures. The Art Story. 2020-03-06.
  20. Web site: Mark di Suvero, For Handel, 1975.
  21. Flanagan . Barbara . Artist welds his cold steel to steal sun . Minneapolis Star . August 19, 1980 . 1C . August 21, 2023 . ProQuest . subscription . August 27, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230827223343/https://www.proquest.com/docview/1879019510/45EEFB15F75C4EEFPQ/111?accountid=14586&forcedol=true . . live .
  22. Web site: rt Projects Mark di Suvero: Shoshone 1982 . Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles . 1 November 2020.
  23. Web site: Shoshone 1982 . Culture Now: Museum Without Walls . 1 November 2020.
  24. Web site: Liu . Maura Gillan Photos by Lani Hanson and James . 2016-06-28 . If the UNL sculptures could talk . 2023-07-07 . The Daily Nebraskan . en.
  25. https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.96670.html Aurora - 1992-1993
  26. http://art.daimler.com/en/artwork/galileo-mark-di-suvero-1996-2/ Mark di Suvero - Galileo, 1996
  27. Web site: Declaration . Declaration, L.A. Louver . 1 October 2023.
  28. Web site: Voxal (Declaration) sculpture by artist Mark di Suvero located in Venice, a beachfront district on the Westside of Los Angeles, California . Library of Congress . 1 October 2023.
  29. Web site: Exchange: Orion. exchange.umma.umich.edu. 2020-03-06.
  30. Web site: Outdoor Sculpture University of Michigan Museum of Art. umma.umich.edu. 2020-03-06.
  31. Web site: ORION COMES HOME University of Michigan Museum of Art. umma.umich.edu. 2020-03-06.
  32. Web site: Clock Knot 2007 . landmarks.utexas.edu . 12 August 2008 . . October 1, 2016.
  33. Web site: Philip Glass: Music . 2015-07-22 . unvagen Music Publishers . https://web.archive.org/web/20150819041105/http://www.philipglass.com/music/films/north_star.php . 2015-08-19 . dead .
  34. Web site: North Star: Mark di Suvero . DVD Verdict . James A. . Stewart . April 19, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150722203906/http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/northstarmarkdisuvero.php . July 22, 2015 .
  35. https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/mark-di-suvero-at-crissy-field/ Mark di Suvero at Crissy Field
  36. News: A Legion of Concerns Over Sculpture / Di Suvero's mediocre 'Pax Jerusalem' may signal a troubling trend at Fine Arts Museums. San Francisco Chronicle . 16 July 2000. Baker, Kenneth.
  37. Web site: Storm King Reopens for the Art-Starved . . Farago, Jason. 9 July 2020.
  38. Web site: The International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award . sculpture.org . . March 10, 2015.
  39. News: Sisario . Ben . May 2, 2005 . Arts, Briefly: Heinz Awards . . . March 10, 2015.
  40. . Smithsonian Announces Archives of American Art Medal Recipients . . . October 6, 2010 . March 10, 2015.
  41. Web site: Mark di Suvero Among 2010 National Medal of Arts Recipients Announced by the White House . artdaily.com . March 10, 2015.
  42. . President Obama to Award 2010 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal . . . March 1, 2011 . March 10, 2015.
  43. Web site: President Obama Presents Arts, Humanities Awards To Meryl Streep, James Taylor . March 2, 2011 . . March 10, 2015.
  44. News: Schuessler . Jennifer . May 15, 2013 . E.L. Doctorow and Mark di Suvero Strike Gold at American Academy of Arts and Letters . . . March 10, 2015.

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