Joel Perlman: A Sculptor's Journey

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is intended as more than a picture book. I have tried to describe the evolution of Joel Perlman’s work in the context of the traditions, historic and recent, in which he works and the artistic climate in which he lives. I have also attempted to reveal the subtle relationships that exist between an artist and his work. Whether successful or not, the attempt was possible only because of the frank, thoughtful, and generous participation of Joel Perlman throughout the process of research and writing. It has also been invaluably aided by many of Joel’s teachers, colleagues, and friends. The recollections, insights, and suggestions of Robert Abrams, Roy Boyd, Betty Cuningham, André Emmerich, Richard Heinrich, Peter Homestead, Susan Putterman, Jeannie Day Roggio, Jack Squier, and Brian Wall were graciously shared and gratefully received. I again benefited greatly from Homer Goldberg’s comprehensive review of an early draft of the manuscript and his suggestions on substance and style.

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As the book progressed, both the author and the sculptor had increasingly enthusiastic expectations of what the final product might look like. I am grateful to the Abbeville Press team—Robert Abrams, President and Publisher; David Fabricant, the book’s editor; Misha Beletsky, its designer; and their colleagues— for managing to exceed even those high expectations.

I am particularly grateful, as always, to my wife, Betsy, for her advice, encouragement, and cheerful support over the months of my preoccupation with Joel Perlman’s sculptural journey.

—Philip F. Palmedo

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During my conversations with Joel he mentioned many people who were important to him, and therefore to his work. He spoke of them along with their virtues: the enthusiasm of architects Peter Stamberg and Paul Aferiat; the patience of Angelos and Charlotte Camillos; the loyalty over many years of collectors Stewart and Judy Colton, Bil Ehrlich, Marty Margulies, Dick Adrian, and most recently Zack and Carol Berman; the longtime support and friendship of art dealers Gloria Luria, Eve Mannes, Crosby Coughlin, and Dorianne Hutton; the great skills of photographers Kevin Noble and Jeremiah Dart, and of Arco-Iris Graphics; and, perhaps most importantly, the excitement generated by the “Gang of Two” when they come home from school and rush into the studio shouting, “Daddy, Daddy, what did you do today?”

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The invitation for his early 2003 show at the Roy Boyd Gallery in Chicago read, “Joel Perlman—New Bronzes: Celebrating the artist’s 25 years with the gallery.” A few years earlier, during a downturn in the art market, Roy Boyd had experienced a difficult time financially, and several of his artists abandoned him. Perlman did not, and the subtitle of the show acknowledged his loyalty. A few weeks after the show closed, Boyd called Perlman and told him rather mysteriously that the show had provoked some specific interest and that Perlman should send him some photographs of his work for a potential commission. Soon Perlman learned that he and two other sculptors had been selected from a large group to submit proposals for a sculpture for the atrium lobby of a new office building in downtown Chicago. Under construction for two years, the twenty-nine story ABN AMRO Plaza was being built by the LaSalle Bank Corporation and its Dutch parent company, ABN AMRO.

Perlman, who has increasingly been drawn to sculpture created for specific locations, was delighted when he visited the site, a forty-two-foot-high atrium with glass walls on two sides that, in his words, “demanded a dynamic, vertical sculpture.” Back in New York, equipped with drawings and photographs of the space, Perlman spent the next four weeks

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OPPOSITE

Figure 6 Crew of riggers from the Chicago area pose with the newly-installed Sky Spirit at ABN AMRO Plaza, May 2004

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Figure 1 Maquette for Sky Spirit , 2003 Foam core, 30 ✕ 6 ✕ 6 in. (76.2 ✕ 15.2 ✕ 15.2 cm) Destroyed RIGHT

Figure 2 Maquette for Sky Spirit, 2003 Bronze, 30 ✕ 6 ✕ 6 in. (76.2 ✕ 15.2 ✕ 15.2 cm) Collection of the artist

building a foam-core model of the sculpture using forms that he had first explored some twelve years earlier. Keeping in mind the geometry of the atrium and the need for the

Fig. 1

work to be interesting from all heights and angles, he cut foam-core elements, hot-glued them together, took them apart, rearranged them, and glued them back together. He used six-inch-high action figures borrowed from his sons to show the eventual scale of the work. When he was satisfied with the model, he set it aside. Returning to it a few days later, he realized that some parts didn’t work and he went back to cutting and gluing.

Plate 1 Computer rendering for Sky Spirit Digital file Collection of the artist

Perlman believes that the maquette for a monumental metal sculpture should also be in metal. The sculpture, to be titled Sky Spirit , was to be made of aluminum plate, so when he had the foam-core model cast in bronze at the Tallix Foundry, he specified a silver nitrate patina to produce an aluminum-like surface. Along with the maquette, he submitted

Fig. 2

three computer-generated renderings of the sculpture as it would appear in place. In his

Pl. 1

accompanying statement, he wrote that he had sought to create a work that would echo the great skyscrapers of Chicago and be strong from any angle and height. He also noted, forthrightly, that this would be his most ambitious sculpture to date. On September 17, Carol Ehlers, the curator of the LaSalle Bank collection, called to tell him he had been awarded the commission.

The next week, Perlman took the maquette to the Tallix Foundry and arranged for the fabrication of the sculpture, a process that would dominate his work for the next six Plate 2 Sky Spirit, 2004 Aluminum, 28 ✕ 10 ✕ 10 ft. (8.53 ✕ 3.05 ✕ 3.05 m) ABN AMRO Plaza, Chicago

months. Tallix made a template of each element of the maquette, scaled it up by computer, and subcontracted the cutting of the full-size, one-half-inch-thick aluminum plates.

As he worked with the Tallix craftsmen to weld the sculpture together, Perlman’s vision of the full-scale work gradually took precedence over adherence to the form of the ma-

Figs. 3, 4, 5

quette. On April 24, 2004, the ten thousand–pound sculpture, in four pieces, left Beacon, New York on a flatbed tractor trailer. Perlman was waiting for it when it arrived in Chicago on April 28. It then took three days to move the pieces into the building and reassemble

Sky Spirit .

The installation of Sky Spirit is an example of the reemergence of significant public sculpture. For much of the twentieth century, public sculpture led a difficult life. Bronze heroes

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Fig. 6

on horseback are not of our time, either culturally or artistically. By mid-century, figurative sculpture had to be radically altered to stand up to modernist architecture, and it seemed that only Henry Moore could accomplish this feat—and only for a brief time.

Much of the creative art of the second half of the century was radically antisocial, antiestablishment, and ultimately anti-art. Arcane, transient, and intentionally shocking, art increasingly became, in Henry Geldzahler’s words, “the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.” 2

Yet, in defiance of the trend of antisocial art, sculptors such as Alexander Calder and David Smith carried on a vital tradition of welding metal that descended from Picasso and Julio González. In its pure abstraction and often large scale, metal sculpture had a natural affinity with modernist architecture, which derived from common aesthetic sources. Joel Perlman is a member of the second generation of American metal sculptors. In 1943, the year of his birth, David Smith, Herbert Ferber, Theodore Roszak, and Ibram Lassaw were all in their thirties. Both a highly personal statement and solidly within the tradition of American welded sculpture, Sky Spirit exemplifies the affinity of abstract sculpture and modernist architecture. It also embodies distinctive traits of Perlman’s diverse sculptural oeuvre.

If it is to provide more than decoration, a public sculpture must have colloquy with both the physical structure and the atmosphere of its surroundings, but it must also stand out enough to make its own independent statement. Sky Spirit has such a relationship with its environment. While not impeding the function of the lobby, it compels the attention of Pl. 2

those within the atrium. But Sky Spirit would not succeed in its environment if it did not succeed as a work of art as well. In part that success results from a formal kinship between the triangular shapes of the individual elements—and their sub-elements—and the dynamic triangular form of the overall composition. Purely through artistic intuition, Perlman has created a three-dimensional fractal geometry. 3 From any one perspective we sense that there are other interesting features that are hidden, and that perception draws us around the work. This form of three-dimensionality adds to the work’s sense of movement, as does its material; with its ability to seemingly capture and reradiate light, the aluminum complements and activates the form. But the principal source of vitality is

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Figures 3, 4, and 5 ( O V E R L E A F ) Sky Spirit being fabricated at Tallix Art Foundry in Beacon, New York, spring 2004

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the upward thrust of the composition itself, mimicking our slightly vertiginous feeling when we enter the forty-two-foot-high atrium. The desire to fly, to break the bonds of gravity, lies deep in the human psyche. Through its sheer scale and its forms exploding upwards, Sky Spirit lifts the human spirit.

In a career now in its fourth decade, Joel Perlman has explored several sculptural ideas, each a distinct formal concept that evolved over several years and then led, in part through evolution and in part through a creative leap, to something distinctly new. There are strong common elements among these manners—for example, a creative tension between stability and dynamism of the sort that animates Sky Spirit . Perlman’s sculpture respects the modernist tradition in which he works and his predecessors in the tradition of welded sculpture. It also reflects more idiosyncratic sources, such as Stonehenge, rotating machinery, the architecture of his native New York City, and Russian Constructivism. On another level, Perlman’s sculpture responds to a different form of inspiration, beyond places, concepts, and works of art: the inspiration gained from people, sculptors whose lives and art were inextricably entwined. That intimate connection between the artist and his art became true of Perlman. The balance between stability and dynamism in Sky Spirit , for example, has its counterpart in Perlman’s early life in a tension between tradition and rebellion, between stability and risk-taking. Over time those elements of his life were reconciled, as they are in Sky Spirit .

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Plate 1 Computer rendering for Sky Spirit Digital file Collection of the artist

Plate 2 Sky Spirit, 2004 Aluminum, 28 ✕ 10 ✕ 10 ft. (8.53 ✕ 3.05 ✕ 3.05 m) ABN AMRO Plaza, Chicago

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The evolution of Joel

Perlman’s sculpture proceeds through two kinds of innovation. Sometimes, as in the Starburst series, it is through the gradual refinement of a formal idea. The more dramatic kind of innovation is the transition from one formal concept to another. As we saw with the origins of both the Portal works and the Starbursts, however, even those changes occur not through large leaps, but through a rapid series of transitional works.

The stimulus for the transition from one formal vision to another may derive from Perlman’s own experimentation, or it may, as in the case of the next major formal innovation, come from an entirely unexpected source.

In the spring of 1996, Charles Moore, the director of athletics at Cornell, came to Perlman’s studio in New York and asked him whether he would accept a commission to create a sculpture for the university’s new sports complex. Perlman had stayed involved with Cornell, and in 1990 he had been given a one-man show at the university’s Johnson Museum of Art. Moore, winner of the gold medal in the 400 meter hurdles in the 1952 Olympics, had the presence of a champion and the manner of a gentleman. He explained that the new athletic facility was being named after Robert J. Kane, a former Dean of

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Figure 48 Wheel and Tornado sculptures in Perlman’s studio on West Broadway in New York, 1998

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Plate 77 Tenneco, 1996 Steel, 15 ✕ 12 ✕ 8 ft. (4.57 ✕ 3.66 ✕ 2.44 m) Tenneco corporate headquarters, Greenwich, Connecticut CENTER

Plate 78 Northern Square, 1996 Steel, 12 ✕ 10 ✕ 6 ft. (3.66 ✕ 3.05 ✕ 1.83 m) Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Low, Purchase, New York RIGHT

Plate 79 Round ‘n’ Round I, 1997 Bronze, 40 ✕ 28 ✕ 28 in. (101.6 ✕ 71.1 ✕ 71.1 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Uzi Meerovitch, New York

Athletics at Cornell who had managed Moore’s Olympic track team and gone on to become president of the United States Olympic Committee. When Perlman expressed his interest in taking on the commission, Moore asked him whether he could work some Olympic rings into his sculpture. Perlman responded by saying he didn’t do circles; he had always felt that the circle was perfect in itself and one could only spoil it. The commission was agreed to anyway, but after saying goodbye, Moore turned and added a parting request to think about some Olympic rings.

By temperament Perlman was attracted to physical, competitive sports like hockey and has been a lifelong New York Rangers fan. He was a goalie on Cornell’s freshman lacrosse team, has run in several marathons, and still runs three miles every mornPlate 75 Dynamis, 1996 Steel, 108 ✕ 60 ✕ 48 in. (274.3 ✕ 152.4 ✕ 121.9 cm) Kane Athletic Robert J. KaneCenter, SportsCornell Complex, University, Ithaca, Cornell New York University, Ithaca, New York

ing. Not surprisingly, then, Perlman was impressed by Charles Moore, and, as he started work on the Cornell sculpture, he felt obligated to try a ring or two. After constructing the basic framework of the sculpture, he cut some rings and welded them into the midst of the linear steel elements, and, much to his amazement, they seemed to work. As with High Peaks, commissioned for the Lake Placid Olympics, the lower,

Pl. 37

vertical section of the work creates a celebratory feeling. A diagonal scattering of rectilinear forms constitutes the upper section. Making a transition between the two is a prominent flat ring, with a smaller Olympic ring near the base echoing the first. Titled

Pl. 75

Dynamis, the Greek word for energy, the sculpture combines the toughness, strength,

Pl. 75

controlled energy, and grace of a champion athlete. When the Kane Complex was dedicated in the spring of 1997, Dynamis was seen as an appropriately affirmative statement—in the words of Cornell reporter Judith Moore, “a monument to human energy and accomplishment.”

Plate 76 High Circle, 1998 Steel, 120 ✕ 60 ✕ 48 in. (304.8 ✕ 152.4 ✕ 121.9 cm) Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York

Circles and rings play subordinate roles in Dynamis and in two related sculptures, High

Pl. Pls.7676, 77

Circle and a work commissioned by Tenneco, Inc. They also appear in a Portal sculpture

Pl. Fig.7747

of 1996, Northern Square . But they soon monopolized Perlman’s creative imagination and

Fig. Pl. 78 47

increasingly dominated his sculptures. André Emmerich considers Perlman’s discovery

Pl. 78

of the circle to have been a “wonderful moment” in his career. In 1997, Perlman created 2

the first of a series of steel and bronze sculptures called Round ‘n’ Round, which combine

Pl. Pls.7979, 80

annular shapes with the triangular forms typical of his Starburst works. The integration

Pl. 80

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LEFT

Plate 80 Round ‘n’ Round III, 1997 Steel, 33 ✕ 28 ✕ 28 in. (83.8 ✕ 71.1 ✕ 71.1 cm) Collection of the artist CENTER

Plate 81 Tabletop, 1998 Steel, 54 ✕ 22 ✕ 22 in. (137.2 ✕ 55.9 ✕ 55.9 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Edward Pressman, New York RIGHT

Plate 82 Tornado V, 1998 Bronze, 28 ✕ 25 ✕ 24 in. (71.1 ✕ 63.5 ✕ 61 cm) Collection of the artist

of such disparate shapes while avoiding awkwardness is far more difficult than Perlman Pl. 81 Pl. 81

makes it appear in these confident sculptures. The shared energy of the forms, circular and upward, allows him to accomplish the synthesis.

At two points in Perlman’s life as a sculptor, a new material and its implied working method provided a catalyst for creative invention. It happened in 1981 when he worked intensively with clay, and it happened again in 1982, when Arthur Schade, a colleague at the School of Visual Arts, introduced Perlman to Styrofoam as a working medium. Sculptural experimentation in steel or aluminum—the cutting, grinding, and welding of pieces of metal—is an arduous process at best, whereas the cutting and gluing of Styrofoam is easy and quick, allowing a freer, more spontaneous creative process. “Welding without Fig. 27

pain,” Perlman calls it.

Plate 83 Big Train I, 1998 Steel, 34 ✕ 40 ✕ 14 in. (86.4 ✕ 101.6 ✕ 35.6 cm) Richard Adrian, East Hampton, New York

As a modeler uses clay, Perlman uses Styrofoam both to explore ideas, for example for a commission for a large work, and to make sculptures in their own right. When he is satisfied with the Styrofoam sculpture, he sends it to the foundry to be cast in bronze. In what could be called the “lost Styrofoam process,” the Styrofoam piece is encased in a ceramic shell, then burned out and replaced by molten bronze. When the bronze cools, the mold is broken apart, and there remains a unique bronze cast.

After chasing (smoothing out) the surface, a patina is applied. While appreciating bronze’s capacity to take on color from a patina, he insists that the metal must still look like metal. Like the Constructivists before him, he believes in the principle of “truth to materials.” In recent years, Perlman’s bronze casting, as well as his fabrication in aluminum, has been done at the Tallix Foundry in Beacon, New York, where he has established a working relationship of mutual respect with foundry president Peter Homestead and fabricator Kurt Wulfmeyer.

Although Perlman first used Styrofoam (in the form of foam core) in the early 1980s to produce some relief sculptures, it was not until 1997 that the technique had a determinant effect on the course of his work. Fully commited to the circle by that time, Perlman sought a simple way of making disks and rings out of Styrofoam and took the problem to his friend and technical mentor, Arthur Schade. Within minutes Schade showed Perlman

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Plate 84 Big Wheel II, 2000 Bronze, 30 ✕ 26 ✕ 13 in. (76.2 ✕ 66 ✕ 33 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Philip F. Palmedo, St. James, New York

LEFT

Plate 85 Round House, 1998 Steel, 40 ✕ 40 ✕ 20 in. (101.6 ✕ 101.6 ✕ 50.8 cm) Collection of the artist CENTER

Plate 86 Machine Age, 1998 Bronze, 18 ✕ 18 ✕ 10 in. (45.7 ✕ 45.7 ✕ 25.4 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Keith Colburn, Winnetka, Illinois RIGHT

Plate 87 Iron Giant, 1999 Steel, 132 ✕ 36 ✕ 36 in. (335.3 ✕ 91.4 ✕ 91.4 cm) Collection of the artist

Figure 47 Riggers installing Tenneco at Tenneco corporate headquarters, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1996

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LEFT

Plate 88 Nantucket, 2002 Steel, 11 ✕ 12 ✕ 7 ft. (3.35 ✕ 3.66 ✕ 2.13 m) Mr. and Mrs. Robi Blumenstein, Nantucket, Massachusetts RIGHT

Plate 89 Tower, 2003 Steel, 111 ✕ 28 ✕ 28 in. (281.9 ✕ 71.1 ✕ 71.1 cm) CollectionLevin Kramer of the Naftalis artist & Frankel LLP, New York

how to create a simple jig out of a piece of plywood and a nail. With the jig clamped to the saw table, and the Styrofoam sheet impaled on the nail, Joel could rotate the sheet through the band saw to create a perfect circle.

This rudimentary technical innovation had a significant impact on Perlman’s technique, and thereby on the style of his work. Because Styrofoam is so easy to work with, Perlman’s sculptures that start with that material tend to be more complex than his steel pieces. Such was the case with a series of works that derived from his steel Round ‘n’ Pl. 82

Round series, a group of cast bronze works entitled Tornado . The energetic Round ‘n’

Fig. 48

Round sculptures are calm in comparison with the furious Tornadoes. As so often with Perlman’s sculpture, and as their titles suggest, the Tornadoes have a certain wildness to them, and a precariousness contributed by the top-heavy V shape, but all that is contained in a tightly controlled composition with not one awkward element.

Accident is the artist’s most generous friend, but in art, as in science, chance favors the prepared mind. 3 One day when Perlman was moving a Tornado sculpture with a hoist, it tipped over so that the rings were upright. “It looked totally weird and offbalance,” says Perlman, “so I was immediately excited.” The next sculpture he created, Pls. 83–85

Big Train I, constructed of vertical discs, initiated one of Perlman’s most powerful series of works, the Wheels. Despite some off-kilter elements, Perlman’s mature sculptures have always been carefully and tightly composed. It is not surprising that the circle, in its perfect containment, should appeal to him and that he could overcome his hesitation to employ this “perfect form.”

From the time early in his career when he used found industrial scrap in his work, Perlman resisted using recognizable objects such as gears or wheels. In making that choice, Perlman separated himself from a major tradition in welded sculpture dating from Picasso’s work of the 1930s and 1940s, in which common objects such as colanders and bicycle handlebars were transformed into evocative beings. During Perlman’s formative years, Picasso’s descendents in that genre included Jason Seley, who had inspired Joel as a teenager, John Chamberlain, and particularly Richard Stankiewicz. As Picasso’s before him, Stankiewicz’s “junk sculptures” usually had a figurative reference; typical

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Figure 49 Antique celestial chart illustrating the apparent movement of the sun, moon, and planets around the earth

Plate 93 Big Brown, 2004 Steel, 39 ✕ 35 ✕ 13 in. (99.1 ✕ 88.9 ✕ 33 cm) Collection of the artist

Plate 94 Detail of Big Brown

titles are Kabuki Dancer and Middle-Aged Couple . 4 In his quest for abstract, formal in-

Fig. 19

tegrity Perlman assiduously avoided the use of recognizable objects, as he avoided, with rare exceptions (such as the Tornadoes), any hint of figuration.

Plate 90 Merlin, 1999 Steel, 72 ✕ 96 ✕ 48 in. (182.9 ✕ 243.8 ✕ 121.9 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Peter Greer, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

While strongly evocative of machines, the elements in Perlman’s Wheel sculptures have no independent history. Machine Age (whose title was inspired by a show of that name at

Pl. 86

the Brooklyn Museum) doesn’t represent a machine with certain qualities, but rather the qualities of the machine, its weightiness and durability and its stalwart grace of movement. Perlman has managed to instill in these works some of his lifelong passion for the motorcycle. In a gesture akin to the tilt of his portals, the rotation of the elements of his Wheel sculptures is by no means pure; there are no equally spaced gears. The spirit of a machine is contained in a dynamic, tightly composed, purely abstract composition.

With his Tornadoes and Wheels, Perlman makes his own one of the most ubiquitous and powerful symbols in art, the form that man since earliest times has used to explain life and the universe. The circle is the shape that very young children draw when they first Plate 91 Copper Gyre, 2000 Copper, 8 ✕ 18 ✕ 18 in. (20.3 ✕ 45.7 ✕ 45.7 cm) Mr. Richard Baker, Greenwich, Connecticut

become conscious of the distinction between self and the surrounding world. It is the shape of that world, as defined by our view of the horizon, and it is the shape of the universe as conceived by the earliest astronomers. To ancient man, the cycles of day and year suggested an answer to the terrible question of the meaning of death: that human life itself is a cycle. In Hindu sculpture and in South Asian mandalas the cycle of life was represented by the circle.5

For Perlman, the circle is not a philosophical or religious symbol, no mandala, ring of life, or halo. Nor is it the absolutely pure circular disk painted by Malevich or fabricated by David Smith. Perlman’s circles are palpable steel or bronze annular rings. They are solid Constructivist creations that evoke the world of working machines and rotating gears.

They derive from Tatlin and Rodchenko’s utilitarianism rather than Malevich’s aesthetic purity. The artist’s intention, however, does not entirely determine the response of the Plate 92 Copper Lock, 2000 Copper, 22 ✕ 20 ✕ 11 in. (55.9 ✕ 50.8 ✕ 27.9 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Henry Laufer, Setauket, New York

viewer. The art object is a conceptual medium between the artist and the spectator.

When it incorporates a form as richly symbolic as the circle, it can evoke far more things than were dreamt of in the artist’s philosophy. Such unintended reverberations in the

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Fig. 49

Plate 95 Top Gear, 2004 Steel, 32 ✕ 36 ✕ 17 in. (81.3 ✕ 91.4 ✕ 41.2 cm) Collection of the artist

Plate 96 Detail of Top Gear

viewer inevitably contribute to the depth and effectiveness of all of Perlman’s sculptures, but they particularly do for his Wheels and Tornadoes.

While the evolution of Perlman’s Wheel sculptures owed a great deal to his use of Pls. 87–89 Pl. 90

Styrofoam, he also used circular forms successfully in some large fabricated steel sculptures in which they play important but subsidiary roles. In Merlin , for example, the qualities of steel contribute to a stately work in which the wheels appear to rotate more deliberately than in its bronze counterparts. Merlin shares some fundamental characteristics, such as its slight deviations from two-dimensionality, with Perlman’s Portal works of some seventeen years earlier. The wheel is sufficiently powerful to accommodate gracefully some of Perlman’s earlier forms, such as the triangle. He has also found that it

Pls. 91–97

is adaptable to different materials, including copper, and to varying patinas.

The circle was an important and productive addition to Perlman’s sculptural vocabulary. A natural step within a highly consistent, highly controlled sculptural evolution, the circular form invigorated his work in the second half of the 1990s and continues to be a source of inspiration today.

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Plate 97 Ratchet, 2004 Steel, 36 ✕ 40 ✕ 17 in. (91.4 ✕ 101.6 ✕ 43.2 cm) Collection of the artist

Plate 76 High Circle, 1998 Steel, 120 ✕ 60 ✕ 48 in.

(304.8 ✕ 152.4 ✕ 121.9 cm) Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York OPPOSITE

Plate 75 Dynamis, 1996 Steel, 108 ✕ 60 ✕ 48 in. (274.3 ✕ 152.4 ✕ 121.9 cm) Kane Athletic University, Ithaca, Robert J. KaneCenter, SportsCornell Complex, New York Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Plate 77 Tenneco, 1996 Steel, 15 ✕ 12 ✕ 8 ft. (4.57 ✕ 3.66 ✕ 2.44 m) Tenneco corporate headquarters, Greenwich, Connecticut

Plate 79 Round ‘n’ Round I, 1997 Bronze, 40 ✕ 28 ✕ 28 in. (101.6 ✕ 71.1 ✕ 71.1 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Uzi Meerovitch, New York OPPOSITE

Plate 78 Northern Square, 1996 Steel, 12 ✕ 10 ✕ 6 ft. (3.66 ✕ 3.05 ✕ 1.83 m) Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Low, Purchase, New York

Plate 81 Tabletop, 1998 Steel, 54 ✕ 22 ✕ 22 in. (137.2 ✕ 55.9 ✕ 55.9 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Edward Pressman, New York OPPOSITE

Plate 80 Round ‘n’ Round III, 1997 Steel, 33 ✕ 28 ✕ 28 in. (83.8 ✕ 71.1 ✕ 71.1 cm) Collection of the artist

Plate 83 Big Train I, 1998 Steel, 34 ✕ 40 ✕ 14 in. (86.4 ✕ 101.6 ✕ 35.6 cm) Richard Adrian, East Hampton, New York OPPOSITE

Plate 82 Tornado V, 1998 Bronze, 28 ✕ 25 ✕ 24 in. (71.1 ✕ 63.5 ✕ 61 cm) Collection of the artist

Plate 84 Big Wheel II, 2000 Bronze, 30 ✕ 26 ✕ 13 in. (76.2 ✕ 66 ✕ 33 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Philip F. Palmedo, St. James, New York

Plate 85 Round House, 1998 Steel, 40 ✕ 40 ✕ 20 in. (101.6 ✕ 101.6 ✕ 50.8 cm) Collection of the artist

Plate 87 Iron Giant, 1999 Steel, 132 ✕ 36 ✕ 36 in. (335.3 ✕ 91.4 ✕ 91.4 cm) Collection of the artist OPPOSITE

Plate 86 Machine Age, 1998 Bronze, 18 ✕ 18 ✕ 10 in. (45.7 ✕ 45.7 ✕ 25.4 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Keith Colburn, Winnetka, Illinois

Plate 88 Nantucket, 2002 Steel, 11 ✕ 12 ✕ 7 ft. (3.35 ✕ 3.66 ✕ 2.13 m) Mr. and Mrs. Robi Blumenstein, Nantucket, Massachusetts

Plate 89 Tower, Plate 892003 Steel, 111 ✕ 28 ✕ 28 in. (281.9 ✕ 71.1 ✕ 71.1 cm) Tower, 2003 Kramer Naftalis & Frankel LLP, Steel, 111Levin ✕ 28 ✕ 28 in. (281.9 ✕ 71.1 ✕ 71.1 cm) New York Collection of the artist FOLLOWING PAGES

Plate 90 Merlin, 1999 Steel, 72 ✕ 96 ✕ 48 in. (182.9 ✕ 243.8 ✕ 121.9 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Peter Greer, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Plate 91 Copper Gyre, 2000 Copper, 8 ✕ 18 ✕ 18 in. (20.3 ✕ 45.7 ✕ 45.7 cm) Mr. Richard Baker, Greenwich, Connecticut OPPOSITE

Plate 92 Copper Lock, 2000 Copper, 22 ✕ 20 ✕ 11 in. (55.9 ✕ 50.8 ✕ 27.9 cm) Mr. and Mrs. Henry Laufer, Setauket, New York

Plate 94 Detail of Big Brown OPPOSITE

Plate 93 Big Brown, 2004 Steel, 39 ✕ 35 ✕ 13 in. (99.1 ✕ 88.9 ✕ 33 cm) Collection of the artist

Plate 95 Top Gear, 2004 Steel, 32 ✕ 36 ✕ 17 in. (81.3 ✕ 91.4 ✕ 41.2 cm) Collection of the artist

Plate 96 Detail of Top Gear

Plate 97 Ratchet, 2004 Steel, 36 ✕ 40 ✕ 17 in. (91.4 ✕ 101.6 ✕ 43.2 cm) Collection of the artist

Jerome, Joel, and Jean Perlman, Washington Heights, 1944

Perlman in Kensington Square, London, 1966

Perlman enjoys the roof playground at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, 1947

CHRONOLOGY 1943

1965

Born in Washington Heights, New York, the only son of Jerome and Jean Perlman, who reside on Haven Avenue, directly south of George Washington Bridge.

Receives BFA from Cornell. Two-person exhibition “Dobson and Perlman” at Sibley Dome at Cornell’s College of Art and Architecture.

1965–66 1946 Enters Ethical Culture Fieldston School as scholarship student. Exposed to the Abrams and Neuberger families’ art collections.

Returns to London’s Central School for postgraduate studies. Learns bronze casting and exhibits first bronzes in group exhibition at Grosvenor Gallery, London.

1955

1967–68

Graduates from the Ethical Culture School and enters its secondary school, Fieldston. Struggles to maintain interest in academic subjects, subsequently becoming Fieldston’s first shop and mechanical drawing major.

Graduate studies at University of California, Berkeley (MA 1968) with Peter Voulkos, Robert Hudson, James Melchert, and visiting professor David Hockney.

1968–69 1958 Father Jerome Perlman dies suddenly at the age of forty-seven. Mother Jean Perlman returns to work as bookkeeper in New York’s Garment District.

Returns to England on U.C. Berkeley Traveling Fellowship. Teaches at Winchester College of Art. First solo exhibition at Axiom Gallery, London. His travels in Scandinavia, western Europe, North Africa, and Britain include a revelatory visit to Stonehenge.

1959 Visits sculptor Jason Seley’s studio with Dr. Philip Weissman.

1961 Enters Cornell University. Studies sculpture with Jack Squier and is awarded the Dean of the College of Art and Architecture Scholarship. Becomes interested in architecture through roommate Peter Rosen. Learns to weld in evening adult education class at Ames Welding, Ithaca, NY.

1964 Takes leave of absence from Cornell to travel and visit museums in Europe. Enrolls at Central School of Art and Design, London, where he studies with William Turnbull and Brian Wall.

1969 Marries painter Ann Thornycroft (divorced 1972).

Moves back to US to teach at Bennington College, Vermont. Immediately estranged from Clement Greenberg’s inner circle there, but welcomed by Jules Olitski, Susan Crile, and Michael and Connie Marton.

1971 Visits Moscow and Leningrad with architect Peter Avondoglio and Danish Young Communist group.

Tours museums and monuments and evades Intourist guides to meet with young Russian artists and visit National Art Academy.

1972 Returns to New York City and sublets loft on Greene Street, Soho. Participates in group exhibition Five Sculptors from Bennington at André Emmerich’s downtown gallery.

212

Jan Cook. Joel , 1972. Crayon on paper, 7 x 9 in. (17.8 x 22.9 cm).

Perlman and Jeannie Day at Bennington College, 1972

Perlman (center) with Nathan Kolodner (left) and André Emmerich (right), 1978

1973

1983

1999

Moves to top-floor studio on Lispenard Street.

Founds Blue Star Transit, an art-moving business, with sculptor Richard Heinrich. Chevy Short (for Jeannie Day) (plate 21) included in 1973 Whitney Biennial. First one-person exhibition at the André Emmerich Gallery. Meets sculptor Herbert Ferber.

Begins teaching career at School of Visual Arts, where he is still an instructor.

Big Diamond Hanger (plate 45) purchased by Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Learns Styrofoam building and lost-Styrofoam casting in a School of Visual Arts class taught by Art Schade.

First of several solo exhibitions at the Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida.

Consolidates all bronze casting to Tallix, Inc., Beacon, New York.

1974 Awarded Guggenheim fellowship. Begins spending summers in Southampton, Long Island, where he meets Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers, Esteban Vicente, and Henry Geldzahler.

1987

Participates in group exhibition Welded Sculpture of the Twentieth Century at the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York. First one-person exhibition at Kouros Gallery, New York.

Exhibits Tilted Square (plate 50) at Metropolitan Museum of Art’s roof garden.

2002

1989

Begins fabricating monumental works at Tallix, Inc. with Kurt Wulfmeyer.

Fabricates East Gate (plate 52) at Liberty Iron Works, Long Island, and establishes longstanding working relationship with ownerJohn Degan.

1977 Night Traveler (plate 29) commissioned for Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York.With Richard Heinrich purchases building at 250 West Broadway, where he still works and resides with his family.

1990 Solo exhibition A Decade of Sculpture at Cornell’s Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

First exhibition in Chicago, at the Roy Boyd Gallery.

Meets sculptor Barry Tinsley.

Marries attorney and businesswoman Nancy Skluth.

Elected to Century Association, New York.

1995 1979 Awarded National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Small pieces exhibited at gallery owned by Bil Ehrlich, who becomes close friend and adviser.

Great Southern Star (plate 64) awarded Special Purchase Prize at Fujisankei Biennale, Japan.

Travels in Japan.

1996 1980 High Peaks (plate 37) commissioned for Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York.

Son Jack David Perlman born. Receives commission for the Tenneco Corporation headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut (plate 77).

1981–3

1997

Runs New York City Marathon and four others as member of the Sweet Lew Track Club.

Son Samuel Jacob Perlman born.

1998 1982 Exhibits Big Diamond (plate 43), later purchased by Martin Z. Margulies, at Chicago’s Mile of Sculpture.

Meets sculptor John Henry. Marries painter Virginia Lee Webb (divorced 1989).

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2003 Twenty-fifth anniversary solo exhibition at the Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago. Sky Spirit (plate 2) commissioned for ABN AMRO Plaza, Chicago. Acquires summer residence in Watermill, Long Island.

2005 1992

1978

2000

Elected to Cornell President’s Council. High Spirit (plate 65) commissioned for Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey, and fabricated at Johnson Atelier, Mercerville, New Jersey.

Mother Jean Perlman dies aged ninety-three.

Receives commission for the Jacob Reingold Pavilion at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York.

Completes construction of new summer studio in Watermill, where he begins his ”Seven Ponds“ series (see p. 216).

Perlman (left) with painter Esteban Vicente, 1986

Perlman (left) with collector Martin Margulies on Big Diamond (plate 43), 1982

Perlman (left) with sculptor Herbert Ferber, 1990

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1969

1986

2000

Axiom Gallery, London

Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles

Kouros Gallery, New York

1970

1987

2002

Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont

André Emmerich Gallery, New York

Kouros Gallery, New York

1973

1988

2003

André Emmerich Gallery, New York

Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago

Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago

1976

1989

2005

André Emmerich Gallery, New York

Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida

Kouros Gallery, New York

1977

1990

Galerie André Emmerich, Zurich

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida

1978 Galerie Pudelko, Bonn André Emmerich Gallery, New York Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago

1991 1980 André Emmerich Gallery, New York Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago Ehrlich Gallery, New York

R.V.S. Fine Art, Southampton, New York Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

1993 1981 Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles

André Emmerich Gallery, New York Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta

1982

1994

André Emmerich Gallery, New York André Emmerich Gallery, New York

Margulies Taplin Gallery, Miami Lyons Gallery, Delray Beach, Florida

1983

1995

Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida

Lyons Gallery, Delray Beach, Florida

1996 1985 André Emmerich Gallery, New York

Century Association, New York Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, New York

1999 Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago

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Samuel Jacob Perlman (left) and Jack David Perlman, Watermill, New York, 2005

Nancy Skluth with dogs Trudy and Frasier, Watermill, New York, 2004

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1965

1980

1988

Grosvenor Gallery, London

Arts Project and the Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York

New Sculpture, Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta

1966 Transatlantics, American Embassy, London

1967 University of California, Berkeley

1968

1990 1982 Heroic Lyricism, Tweed Gallery, Plainfield, New Jersey Mayor Byrne’s Mile of Sculpture, Chicago Casting: A Survey of Cast Metal Sculpture in the ‘80s, Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco

Contemporary Arts Fair, Florence

New Sculpture, Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta

1992 Contemporary American Art, American Embassy, Tel Aviv, Israel Sculpture for Public and Private Places, Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida

1983 1969

Big in Boston, Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston

1994

1984

Margulies Taplin Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida Second Parrish Art Museum Design Biennial, Southampton, New York

Open Air Sculpture, Edinburgh

1972 Henri Gallery, Washington, D.C. Five Sculptors from Bennington , André Emmerich Gallery, New York

1973 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, New York Second Annual Contemporary Reflections, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut

Recent Sculpture, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey Works in Bronze: A Modern Survey, traveling exhibition: University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California; Redding Museum and Art Center, Redding, California; Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California; Boise Gallery of Art, Boise, Idaho; Cheney Cowles Memorial Museum, Spokane, Washington

Galerie André Emmerich, Zurich Alexander F. Milliken, Inc., New York

1977 Cornell Then, Sculpture Now, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York

1978 Cornell Then, Sculpture Now, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art New Sculpture, Galerie Pudelko, Bonn

1979 Prospect Mountain Sculpture Show, Lake George, New York

215

Second Fujisankei Biennale, Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum, Japan Drawings and Maquettes, Nardin Galleries, Somers, New York Osaka Triennial 1995—Sculpture, Osaka, Japan

1996 1985

1976

1995

Sculptors’ Studies, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, New York Workshop Experiments: Clay, Paper, Fabric, Glass, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermont Top Gallant Farm, Pawling, New York

Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Hamilton, Ohio

1997 Pier Walk, Navy Pier, Chicago Boom, T. Curtsnoc Gallery, Miami

1986

1998

The Sculptor’s Guild, Schulman Sculpture Park, White Plains, New York Works in Bronze , Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada

Laumeier Sculpture Park, Saint Louis

1987

2000

Nothing But Steel, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art roof garden, New York

Sculpture 2000, McClain Gallery, Houston Welded Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York

1999 5, Axis Gallery, New York

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS 2002 Clark Fine Arts, Southampton, New York

2003 Inside/Outside/On the Wall, Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York Sculpture Project II, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Hopewell, New Jersey

Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine Buscaglia-Castellani Art Gallery, Niagra University Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York

2004 Metal Music, Gallery North, Setauket, New York

Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Kane Sports Complex, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida Martin Z. Margulies Sculpture Park, Florida International University, Miami Mary and Lee Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Mirror Lake Park, Lake Placid, New York Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Hamilton, Ohio Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum, Japan Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia Whitney Museum of American Art

Seven Ponds II , 2005 Steel, 73 x 105 x 40 in. (185.4 x 266.7 x 101.6 cm) Collection of the artist

216

217