Exposition Art Blog: Robert W. Mallary - Neo-Dada Art

Robert W. Mallary - Neo-Dada Art

Robert W. Mallary (Dec. 2, 1917-Feb. 10, 1997) was an American sculptor and pioneer in computer art. He was renowned for his Neo-Dada or "junk art" sculpture in the 1950s and '60s, created from found materials and urban detritus, using liquid plastics and resins. In 1968 he created one of the world's first computer-generated sculptures.Mallary was born in Toledo, Ohio, and grew up in Berkeley, California. He was interested in art from his youth, and went to Mexico City to study at the Escuela de Las Artes Del Libro (now the Escuela Nacional de Artes Gráficas) in 1938-39, and then at the Academy of San Carlos in 1942-43, where he was inspired by José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. He also studied at the Painter's Workshop School in Boston, Massachusetts in 1941.He worked as an advertising Art Director in California from 1945-48, and as a freelance commercial artist until 1954, as he continued to pursue his fine arts career. Mallary's paintings (made with liquid polyester) were shown at the Urban Gallery in New York City in 1954, where he had four other exhibits until 1959. He also exhibited at Gump's Gallery in San Francisco (1953) and the Santa Fe Museum in Arizona (1958).Mallary arranged found objects — discarded cardboard or fabrics — which he covered with polyester resin to create abstract relief sculptures and assemblages. He also produced works using sand and straw hardened with polyester resin. A prominent example of Mallary's "junk art" style was his monumental "Cliffhangers" sculpture, exhibited outside the New York State Pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing, NY. Other pieces of Mallary's work were included in the "Sculpture U.S.A." and "Sixteen Americans" exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1959, and then at its "Art of Assemblage" exhibition in 1961. He was selected for a $1,000 preliminary award in the U.S. National section of the Guggenheim International Award in 1960, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964. Wikipedia














 

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