Lecture: Working Metal in 20th-Century Sculpture

5:30pm Lecture, Cantor Arts Center, Auditorium

Working Metal in 20th-Century Sculpture is an intimate look at the expressive potential of metal worked directly by the artist’s hand using techniques and tools developed for industrial use. The artists featured in this exhibition, including Ruth Asawa, Harry Bertoia, and Melvin Edwards, exploited metal’s deep material and cultural resonances to create forms with extraordinary visual, tactile, and even sonic appeal.

Exhibition curator, Sydney Skelton Simon, Andrew W. Mellon Graduate Curatorial Research Assistant and PhD candidate in the Department of Art & Art History, will discuss the powerful histories of labor and collective memory evoked by these sculptures. Responding critically to the conditions of life in an industrialized world, the artists express in their work a deep ambivalence about industry and the politics of making.

This program is organized by the Cantor Arts Center. We gratefully acknowledge support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

IMAGE: Ruth Asawa (U.S.A., 1926–2013), Untitled, c. 1962. 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. (39.4 x 39.4 x 39.4 cm). Copper or bronze wire. Gift of Carol and Dexter Hake, 2014.110