RICHARD HEINRICH
cover: JAZZOO II, 2008 (detail) steel, 56 x 15 x 12 inches
RICHARD HEINRICH
Designed and Produced by Irina Arnaut
Richard Heinrich in his Tribeca studio, 2014 photo by Jack Jeffries, Cavan Images
CONTENTS 7 INTRODUCTION
by Max Blagg
10 ARTWORK 76 SELECT BIOGRAPHY 80 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Tribeca studio view photo by Jack Jeffries, Cavan Images
HEINRICH’S MANEUVERS by Max Blagg
Richard Heinrich’s Tribeca studio, with its cutting tools, acetylene tanks, an d as s orted bo x e s of n u ts a n d bo lts , h a s th e oil-s ce n ted a i r of a work in g factory. Ra n g e d a rou n d th e p e rime te r, lik e s e n ti ne l s , s tan d a s eries of min ia tu re tow e rs — v olu ble me ta l s cu lp tu re s c reated by h is h an ds . H e in rich h a s w ork e d h e re o n th e e ig h th flo o r f o r 35 years , obs ervin g th e p e rmu ta tio n s of Ne w York ’ s s k y lin e f ro m h is s outh ern win do w s , a v ie w n ow p a rtia lly o bs cu re d by a ra sh o f n ew con s truc tion . Heinrich came out of Brooklyn, into the wide-open spaces of lower Manhattan, in the early ’60s, with a connection to steel going back decades. His paternal grandfather founded the Brooklyn-based Heinrich Iron Works in 1905, and his mother ’s father, Samuel Halpern, fashioned decorative brass and copper lighting fixtures for hotels and other venerable institutions. Examples of his work can still be seen at the Waldorf Astoria. As a civil engineer who also worked with steel, Heinrich’s father often worked with the Long Island City firm Thypin Steel, which supplied material for everything from bridges to ships and armored vehicles. Charles Heinrich’s friendship with David Thypin allowed Richard to wander through a city-block-sized warehouse of monumental discards, great chunks and prime cuts left over from the enormous jobs contracted by Thypin. Richard would regularly sort through this scrap and haul away whatever he could carry. 7
Richard Heinrich at Scana Steelworks, Jørpeland , Norway photo by Bob Emser
Before Heinrich settled into the comfortable funkiness of downtown, he made three serious journeys—two trips to Japan and one to the home of artist David Smith in upstate New York. Smith’s work, a new form of beauty that somehow still held onto a sense of the industrial, had entranced the younger artist and sparked this pilgrimage to Bolton Landing to see the things that might be done with steel. Heinrich was deeply impressed by the way Smith had merged the humanity of Giacometti and Julio Gonzales with the colder resonance of Minimalism. How he had injected warmth into the steel. Seeing Smith’s work in its place of origin opened things up. He also took note of how Smith, in Frank O’Hara’s words, “never asked materials to be attractive, just to cooperate.” Heinrich’s two visits to Japan were a continuation of the search for balance and gravity, for ways of overcoming anxiety, playing with chance, and synthesizing the organic mix of frantic influences roiling around his head. Heinrich dug deep into Charlie Parker and Samuel Beckett, into James Joyce’s sonic booms, in a bid to resolve chaos into structure, translate dissonance into theme and variation, and locate that delicate balance between uncertainty and Heisenberg. What Japan gave Heinrich above all was a “deep respect for hand and touch.” His first visit, an eighteen-month stay, included six months as foreign artist in residence at Nippon Yakin K.K., a large producer of stainless steel. Recalling childhood days at his grandfather ’s iron works, the artist was awestruck by the massive size and power of Nippon Yakin’s equipment, the giant Henry Pels machine punching holes in enormous I-beams. Six years after that first visit he and his wife, Amy, returned to Tokyo again for another eighteen months, until her Fulbright expired and the siren call of New York drew them back. Back home, they found that there was space to be had for anyone who wanted it: Robert Moses had tried to knock down the cast-iron commercial buildings of lower Manhattan and run through a superhighway, but he had failed, and now those buildings—usually cheap and rundown—were a realtor ’s nightmare, but an artist’s dream. 8
CRIMP & THRUST, 1982 steel, 80 x 42 x 37 inches (both) installation at C.W. Post College, Brookville, NY
Just below Canal Street, Richard found a steel-framed concrete building, filled with machine shops, whose floors could hold the weight of the steel he meant to fabricate into the shapes his mind was making. Music was in the air, and in his head, too; he was uncertain which direction to take—bending notes in air, or bending steel? The building was only a few blocks from the original Five Spot on the Bowery, where, until not long before, you could actually hear Monk transmit his celestial notes out into the night air, rapping on the stratosphere. In the end, Hein rich brou g h t h is o w n mu s ica l in flu e n ce s to h is a r t . Even today h e does n ’ t w o rk fro m d ra w in g s , bu t k e e p s h is ma te r i a l s c los e at h an d in th e s tu d io , e mp lo y in g a n imp rov is a tion a l me t ho d c los ely lin ked to mu s ic, a con s ta n t s e a rch for a k in d of s y n e s th e s i a in wh ic h n otes are tra n s mu te d in to th e u n y ie ld in g form of s t e e l s c ulp ture. When does the call of art first strike a person? For Richard, it may have begun when he was eight years old, attending a sculpture class at the Brooklyn Museum. As he walked across the great Oceanic Hall, the North West Pacific art, scary monsters, and spirits and gods of the waters and forests got a grip on his consciousness. Or it might have been later, on his regular visits to MoMA—absorbing the beauty and tranquility of the Brancusis, the barely contained energy of Giacometti’s delicate figures. Those images lodge in one’s head, the penniless Swiss in his grungy Paris studio, covered in plaster dust, obsessed with the search for pure beauty, just as Richard was when he first walked into the sculpture studio at Cornell. Everything fueled by the contained chaos of the city, with a constant soundtrack of harmony and dissonance, Thelonius Monk and Mingus and Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington vying with Schubert and Bach. Days and nights spent testing gravity, playing with the Doppler effect, two ways to go, horizontal or vertical, the steel will tell you if you get it right, as long as you keep going back, day after day. A circular journey, beginning and ending in steel. How it can be manipulated into sculpture that sings like music. That joy you feel when you turn it on and once again Lester leaps in. 11
LESTER’S LEAP, 2015 steel, 18 x 17 x 13 inches photo by David Mitchell
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AFTER HOURS, 2015 steel, 14 x 17 x 10 inches photo by David Mitchell
BAG’S GROOVE, 2015 steel, 18 x 15 x 10 inches
photo by David Mitchell
EVERYDAY, 1988 steel, 6 x 11 x 8 inches photos by David Mitchell
previous page, left to right: GIGUE I, 2013 steel, 7 x 12 x 8 inches GIGUE VII, 2013 steel, 7 x 12 x 8 inches GIGUE V, 2013 steel, 6 x 11 x 7 inches GIGUE III, 2013 steel, 5 x 11 x 7 inches below: A VALANCHE, 2008 steel, 20 x 10 x 13 inches
photos by David Mitchell
MAQUETTE 1399, 2000 bronze, 24 x 6 x 6 inches photo by David Mitchell
NEW YORK BRIDGE MAQUETTE, 2000 bronze, 18 x 5 x 5 inches photo by David Mitchell
below: TITAN, 2001 steel, 144 x 36 x 48 inches installation in Changchun, China
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facing page: TITAN MAQUETTE, 2000 bronze, 24 x 7 x 7 inches photo by David Mitchell
facing page: OFF-MINOR, 2003 steel, 200 x 48 x 48 inches installation at Purdue University North Central, Westville, IN below: production site, OFF-MINOR
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above: LAST MAN, 1983 steel, 73 x 23 x 24 inches facing page: BOOGIE BIRD, 1985 steel, 80 x 25 x 20 inches photo by David Mitchell 29
above: WIWAXIA II, 1990 steel, 91 x 16 x 16 inches facing page: OXBRIDGE, 1989 steel, 22 x 12 x 10 inches
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MINGUS II, 1999 steel, 88 x 22 x 22 inches photo by David Mitchell
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BIG ZOOT SUIT, 2000 steel, 121 x 32 x 32 inches installation at The Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, NJ photo by John McCabe
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MOHEGAN, 1985 steel, 45 x 20 x 15 inches
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KANDA, 1982 steel, 43 x 12 x 16 inches
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above: M.O.C., 1985 steel, 94 x 30 x 30 inches facing page: MR. BALZAC, 2002 steel, 64 x 17 x 17 inches photo by David Mitchell 38
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above: BIG RED JASON, 1983 steel, 46 x 25 x 20 inches facing page: Tribeca studio view, 2016 photo by David Mitchell
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previous page, from left to right: ROUND MIDNIGHT, 2004 steel, 84 x 24 x 24 inches STRAIGHT NO CHASER, 2004 steel, 93 x 24 x 24 inches EPISTROPHY, 2004 steel, 84 x 24 x 24 inches installation at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
facing page: JAZZOO II, 2008 steel, 56 x 15 x 12 inches photos by David Mitchell
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top: 2002 Solo Exhibition, installation view Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL facing page: AMERICAN FLYER, 1999 bronze, 24 x 7 x 10 inches 46
photo by David Mitchell
previous page: BRIDGE, 1983 steel, 130 x 35 x 41 inches Grounds For Sculpture Collection, Hamilton, NJ Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Krauss and The Seward Johnson Atelier, Inc. photo by Ken Ek facing page: MALEVICH III, 2013 steel, 19 x 19 x 10 inches photo by David Mitchell
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top to bottom: MALEVICH, 2013 steel, 19 x 19 x 10 inches MALEVICH II, 2013 steel, 19 x 19 x 10 inches MALEVICH III, 2013 steel, 19 x 19 x 10 inches facing page: SCHERZO, 2013 steel, 35 x 16 x 12 inches photo by David Mitchell
above: Tribeca studio view, 2016 facing page: TATLIN’S GARAGE, 2012 steel, 15 x 15 x 7 inches 54
photos by David Mitchell
top to bottom: UNTITLED, 1997 steel, 5 x 11 x 10 inches BURGESS SHALE 18, 1997 steel, 5.5 x 11 x 6 inches BURGESS SHALE 103, 1997 steel, 6.5 x 9 x 11 inches facing page: DARK SHADOWS, 2015 steel, 14 x 17 x 10 inches 56
photos by David Mitchell
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top: MOSE KNOWS, 1989 steel, 28 x 10 x 8 inches bottom: HAWK EYES, 1989 steel, 31 x 10 x 8 inches facing page: SELF-PORTRAIT, MINGUS , 1989 steel, 31 x 8 x 10 inches
facing page: RED & BLACK, 1980 steel, 121 x 43 x 32 inches installation at Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
below: SUCH SWEET THUNDER, 2010 stainless steel, 130 x 24 x 24 inches currently installed at The Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA
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FRACTAL, 2011 stainless steel, 55 x 13 x 13 inches photos by David Mitchell
FRACTAL, 2011 steel, 55 x 13 x 13 inches
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top to bottom: PIET’S CUBE, 2010 steel, 6 x 6 x 6 inches BIX’S BOX, 2010 steel, 6 x 6 x 6 inches BOX CAR, 2010 steel, 8 x 10 x 10 inches facing page: BILLIE’S BOUNCE, 2010 steel, 15 x 8 x 7 inches photos by David Mitchell
JUMP JUMP, 2009 steel, 41 x 6 x 8 inches photo by David Mitchell
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facing page: JUBJUB BIRD, 1989 steel, 17 x 14 x 6 inches below: BOOK ONE, 2010 steel, 9.5 x 9.5 x 9.5 inches photos by David Mitchell
above: AQUA ALTA, 2009 steel, 9 x 17 x 8 inches photo by David Mitchell facing page: LISE I & II, 2008 steel, 120 x 30 x 20 inches
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installation in Jørpeland, Norway photo by Holger Austvoll
SOLSTICE, 2009 steel, 42 x 6 x 6 inches photo by David Mitchell
BOP FOR SID, 2011 steel, 40 x 6 x 7 inches photo by David Mitchell
SOLO 2006 2004 2002 2000 1988 1987 1986 1983 1977 1976
EXHIBITIONS Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York, NY Flatfile Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, IL Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL Rule Gallery, Denver, CO Andreas Gallery, Washington, DC Cydney Payton Gallery, Denver, CO Jay Gallery, New York, NY Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ Soho Center for Visual Artists, New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA 2012 Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, NJ Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL 2011 Saks Fith Avenue Windows, New York, NY Kouros Gallery, Ridgefield, CT Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe, Perth, Australia 2010 Sculpture by the Sea, Bondie, Sydney, Australia Kouros Gallery, New York, NY Koehnline Museum of Art, Des Plains, IL Sculptors Guild at Governors Island, New York, NY 2008 Kouros Gallery, Ridgefield, CT 2007 Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL 2006 Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Hamilton, OH Lubeznik Center, Michigan City, IN Star Gallery, Michigan City, IN The Sculpture Mile, Middletown, CT Chicago Sculpture International Biennale, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL 2005 Scana Steelworks, Jørpeland, Norway Abstraction at 40, Gallery North, Setauket, NY 2004 Metal Music, Gallery North, Setauket, NY Sculptors Guild, White Plains, NY 2003 Direct Metal, Educational Alliance, New York, NY The Sculpture Mile, Madison, CT Bristol-Myers Squibb Sculpture Project, Hopewell, NJ Flatfile Galleries, Chicago, IL Purdue University North Central, Westville, IN Sculpture Invitational, Hebrew Home at Riverdale, New York, NY Eureka Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, Eureka, IL International Sculpture Center Drawing Show, Chicago Art Fair, Chicago, IL International Sculpture Center at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ 2002 Small Works Show, Marcel Scheiner Gallery, Hilton Head, SC Scana Steelworks, Jørpeland, Norway The Artist’s Hand, Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL 76
previous page: Tribeca studio view, photo by David Mitchell
2001 2000 1999 1998 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1989 1988 1987
Peoria Sculpture River Walk, Peoria, IL The Sculpture Mile, West Haven, CT Small Packages IV, Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL International Sculpture Symposium, Changchun, China Des Plaines Sculpture Park, Des Plaines, IL The Artist’s Chair, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO Berkshire Botanical Garden, SculptureNow Gallery, Stockbridge, MA Pier Walk, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL Pier Walk Maquette Show, Daley Center, Chicago, IL Small Packages III, Wood Street Gallery, Group Show, Chicago, IL The Artist’s Chair, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO Pier Walk, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL Pier Walk Maquette Show, State of Illinois Building, Chicago, IL Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL Working in the Third Dimension, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, TN The Sculpture Garden at Station Plaza, Nexus Properties, Trenton, NJ Spring Exhibition, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ Pier Walk, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL Pier Walk Model Show, Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, IL Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL Skokie North Shore Sculpture Park, Skokie, IL Fall Exhibit, RULE Modern and Contemporary, Denver, CO Pier Walk, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL Pier Walk Maquette Show, Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL Gold & Silver Show, American Craft Museum, New York, NY Art for Art’s Sake: Chair-ity, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO Organization of Independent Artists, The Art Club, New York, NY The Complete Image, The Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, CO In This World and Others, Village Temple, New York, NY Drawings and Maquettes, Nardin Galleries, Somers, NY Gallery Emanuel, Great Neck, NY, Sculpture installation Nature Morte, Still Life, RULE Modern and Contemporary, Denver, CO Turning Gold into Silver Auction, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH Black and White Show, Burns Fine Arts LTD, New York, NY All That Glitters, Champion Gallery, Stamford, CT The Small Masterpiece, RULE Modern and Contemporary, Denver, CO Drawing Invitational, Stark Gallery, New York, NY The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Eight Tribeca Sculptors, Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York, NY The Chair Show, Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta, GA Contemporary Abstraction, Long Island University Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Beyond Henry Moore, Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, NY Artists from Cornell, PMW Gallery, Stamford, CT Interior Visions, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Summer Art, PMW Gallery, Stamford, CT MoMA Lending Advisory Committee: Gold, Pfizer Headquarters, New York, NY 77
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY “Totally Abstract,” Michael Paglia, Westword Art, May 11-17, 2000. “Abstract Attractions,” Joanne Ditmer, The Denver Post, May 12, 2000. Grounds for Sculpture, spring catalogue, introduction by Brooke Barrie, 1999. “Abstract in Autumn,” Michael Paglia, DenverWestword.com, Autumn, 1997. “Curator Shows Style,” Vivien Raynor, The New York Times, January 15, 1995, p. 18. “Art Now: Sumptuous Layerings of Lines,” Marilynne S. Mason, The Christian Science Monitor, May 20, 1993. “Art,” M. S. Mason, Rocky Mountain News, December 6, 1992, pp. 65, 111. The Sixth Henry Moore Grand Prize Exhibition, catalogue, The Utsushi-ga-Hara Open Air Museum, Hakone, Japan, 1992. “Review,” Vivien Raynor, The New York Times, August 28, 1988. SELECTED COLLECTIONS Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ Edward Albee, New York, NY Amarada Hess Oil Company Pepsico, Inc. General Electric, Inc. Chemical Bank of New York Fiduciary Trust Company of New York American Express Deloitte, Haskins, & Sells, Boston, MA New York Public Library Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, NY Valley National Bank of Arizona Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum, Rutgers University, NJ Hofstra Universit, Hempstead, NY Northrop Corporation Best Products, Ashland, VA Milt Brutten, Philadelphia, PA Philippe Laumont, New York, NY Miles and Barbara Morgan, Los Angeles, CA Alvin and Judith Krauss, Old Westbury, NY Rod and Christine Patton, New York, CA Dr. and Mrs. Karl Ludwig, San Francisco, CA Carol and Peter Gluck, New York, NY Shore Sculpture Park, Skokie, IL Matt and Julie Dupree, Denver, CO Dr. Scott Fine, New York, NY Dr. Sanford Kempin, New York, NY
facing page: wood maquettes photo by David Mitchell
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Faith McClellan of Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, Scott Schweigert of The Reading Public Museum in Reading, PA, and Marisol Diaz of The Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, NJ, for their support of my work and help in preparing materials for this book. My great appreciation goes to Max Blagg for his essay contribution to this book. Thank you to Will Heinrich, Amy Heinrich, and Dan Heinrich for their editing and proofreading assistance. Thanks very much to David Mitchell for the magnificent photographs of my work, as well as Philippe Laumont, Tom Hurley, Holger Austrvoll, Bob Emser, Ken Ek, John McCabe, and Ronnaug Alsvik for providing photographic documentation of various sculptures installed around the globe. Laumont Studio provided digital scans for this book. Irina Arnaut served as the producer and designer.
facing page: Tribeca studio view, 2016 photo by David Mitchell
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