Sculpture Inside Out

Provides a brief analysis of the sculpture of 17 individuals involved in the current American art scene

The 17 "younger artists" showcased in this interesting survey have little in common except that most of them achieved their mature styles in the 1970s and '80s, and all of them were featured in a sculpture exhibit at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which the album catalogues. Their visions are distinct and idiosyncratic: Jean Highstein's potent granite ovoids hover between prehistory and an unforeseeable future; Meg Webster blends Earth Art and minimalist touches in outdoor craters and cones bedecked with flowers; reinventing classicism, Brower Hatcher sets a steel mesh dome atop stone columns in what looks like a modern seer's astronomical observatory. Also notable are Steve Woodward's giant plywood spirals resembling cyclones in the making, and Jim Soo Kim's vegetative, hallucinatory environments fabricated from cast-off objects. The essays, which are heavy sledding, attempt to link the sculptors to a revolt against minimalism.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Drawn from an exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, this monograph offers a survey evaluation of 17 emerging sculptors of the 1980s. The works of such artists as Donald Lipski, Martin Puryear, Judith Shea, and Meg Webster are analyzed intently by four prominent contemporary art writers. Carter Ratcliff's "The Transformed Object" and Douglas Dreishpoon's "Organic Inflections" are particularly relevant appraisals of a new generation of sculptural style. The sections profiling each artist are thoughtfully documented. Interesting to note is the prevalence of commissioned outdoor work; many of these pieces are well photographed and may prove to be influential. For academic and specialist usage, although it would serve general collections where community interest in public sculpture runs high.
- Paula A. Baxter,
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.