Exposition Art Blog: Contemporary abstract sculpture Mark di Suvero

Contemporary abstract sculpture Mark di Suvero

Marco Polo "Mark" di Suvero (born September 18, 1933) is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient.
"Mark di Suvero's work is the epitome of modern sculpture, which consists of unconventional materials, forms, and approaches. Assembling his works from wood and steel, he created what he referred to as "sculptural structuralism." These three-dimensional constructions were structures that consisted of angled beams intersecting others, sometimes with spiral elements. Such "gestures-in-space" were related to two-dimensional Abstract Expressionist gestural abstraction and action painting - a period of art-making that immediately preceded the artist's most creative period. As di Suvero's worked developed, it became more architectural and often became, or was commissioned as, public sculptures.
Because di Suvero's works consist of built elements, they also incorporate "space" into the composition - that is, that the empty spaces that are formed by the elements of sculpture become a component of the sculpture itself. The space he creates, because it exists within architectural elements, maintains its human, true-to-life, relatable scale.
Di Suvero's works are important to the development of modern sculpture through his tendency to include kinetic - or moving - elements in them. The moving elements, while heavy because of their industrial materials, are meant to give the illusion of ease and suspending gravity.
Often visually off-balance and asymmetrical, Di Suvero's works lend themselves to the idea that they are "drawings in space" and related to the gestural abstraction that became prevalent during the mid-twentieth century"(theartstory.org)













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