Norton Simon Museum collection

Beyond Brancusi: The Space of Sculpture was ashow at the Norton Simon Museum in 2014. The curatorial perspective centered on the influence of Constantin Brancusi on generations of 20^th century sculptors. Craig Kauffman’s 1969 work was from the permanent collection of the museum, acquired by the Pasadena Museum of Art in 1970.

The works by Californians on display at the NSM explored the qualities of light, color, reflection, and translucency. They play with our perception of sculptural space, complicating the subject/object relationship as they dissolve into the surrounding environment. Spatial relationships and perceptual phenomena are the primary focus of these works.

The third room of the exhibit featured “a grouping of works by Southern California artists who introduced experimental materials and expanded the relationship between sculptural object and space even further.”  This space contained works by five artists: Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Helen Pashgian, and DeWain Valentine. A large forty inch cube by Larry Bell rested just beyond the doorway.

Craig Kauffman

Untitled, 1969

Acrylic lacquer on plastic

73 x 50 x 9 inches

Copyright Estate of Craig Kauffman/Artists Rights Society ARS/NY

Translucence and Beyond Brancusi

As we start to install our next exhibition, titled Translucence, at the gallery, I am struck by its parallels with the Beyond Brancusi show currently on view at the Norton Simon Museum. I visited the NSM’s show in July, and really enjoyed its perspective on the influence of Constantin Brancusi on the following generations of 20^th century sculptors.

I particularly remember the third room of the exhibit, which featured “a grouping of works by Southern California artists who introduced experimental materials and expanded the relationship between sculptural object and space even further.”1 This space features four of the five artists included in the gallery’s Translucence exhibition: Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Helen Pashgian, and DeWain Valentine. A large cube by Larry Bell (our fifth artist) rests just beyond the doorway.

The works on display at the NSM, like those that will soon be up at the gallery, explore the qualities of light, color, reflection, and translucency. They play with our perception of sculptural space, complicating the subject/object relationship as they dissolve into the surrounding environment. Spatial relationships and perceptual phenomena are the primary focus of these works, and of Translucence as a show.

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1 Beyond Brancusi: The Space of Sculpture, Press Release, The Norton Simon Museum, January 2013, http://www.nortonsimon.org/assets/Uploads/Beyond-Brancusi-Press-Release.pdf