ALBERT PALEY SCULPTUM DRA JWN~ Grapmcs & DECORA77VE ARTS
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ALBERT PALEY SCULPTUM DRA JWN~ GRAPmcs & DECORA77VE ARTS Essayby Craig Adcock Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts October 12 - November 18, 200 I Gulf Coast Museum of Art February 15-April 14, 2002 Polk Museum of Art April 27-)uly 23, 2002 Terrace Gallery, City of Orlando January-April, 2003 Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts & Dance Albert Paley:Sculpture, Drawings, Grapfiics and DecorativeArts was organized by the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts with grant assistance from the Florida Arts Council. Educational Programming is supported through the Communiversity Partnership of the City of Tallahassee Cultural Services, Cultural Resources Commission. FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY -------------------------------- 2 3 MUSEUMOF FINEARTS THE IMPRIMATUROF ALBERT PALEY TlieMuseum of FineArts offersdeepest gratitude his home, Rochester, New York, to the sive architectural statements that in 1982 to tlie Artist and to liis dedicatedstaff interior sculptural ornament of a gilt opera he was selected to win the Award of particularlyEleta Exline and DavidBurdett. Tliis box handle for a Texas cultural complex. Excellence from the American Institute of complicatedproject /ias come toget/iertfirougli The Artist orchestrates a team of profes Architects for Art in Architecture, specifi tlieirclieerful assistance and goodwill. sionals at the studio he incorporated in cally on the occasion of his PortalGates for On tliis liappy occasion,we liave been 1984 [he has had a substantial studio in the New York Senate Chambers in Albany. privilegedto workwitfi Dr. CraigAdcock wliose New York with a growing team of assistants essay takes on one of t/ie bipolar topics of since 1972). He works from his original In addition to his municipal projects, contemporaryart. Adcock's astute evaluationof drawings and blueprints, making decisions such as the 1980 tree grates and park PROJECTSUPPORT t/ie status of tlie art objecttoday travelsa long to alter or ameliorate his design as he goes; benches for the Pennsylvania Redevelop AND ORGANIZATION fiistoricaldistance, concluding witli tfie commen enormous and powerful machinery is ment Corporation in Washington, D. C., the tary of AlbertPaley. utilized, forging, shaping and manipulating dynamic, complementary pylons he named AlbertPaley: Sculpture, Drawings, Grapliics and Tfie Museumis alsoindebted to tlie Florida elements to create Paley's titanic sculp Synergy in 1987 (Museum Towers of DecorativeArts was organized by the Florida Arts Councilfor generousgrant supportof t/iis ture, heroic archways, massive gates, as Philadelphia) have become a signature State University Museum of Fine Arts. exhibitiont/iat will be s/iaredwit/i t/ie publicof well as human-scaled functional objects work. Pairs of interior pylons completed in Project Curator, Grantwriter, Editor: A. Floridaat fourinstitutions: MoFA in Talla/iassee, ceremonial tables, desks, or lamps. Florida the same year for the Wortham Center for Palladino-Craig. Registrar: Becky L. jones; t/ieGulf CoastMuseum of Art in Largo,tlie Polk State University joins institutions like the the Performing Arts in Houston, Texas, Museum Press Design-Julienne T. Mason; Museumof Art in Lakeland,and tlie Terrace Renwick Gallery (Smithsonian) and the New riffle in an imaginary wind, a steel metaphor Fiscal Officer-Jean Young; Educational Galleryof tlie City of Orlando. York State House (Albany) in its commis of silken pennants with heights of fifteen to Programming-Viki D. Thompson Wylder; sion of ceremonial gates. Beneath the thirty feet and cantilevered metal ribbons Preparator-Wayne Vonada. For Albert Paley, the definitive turning north-facing arch of University Center, that extend as far as twenty feet. Paley has point in his studio career-from Paley's Stadium Gates were installed in journeyed from small scale in the seventies This program is sponsored in part by the metalsmithing on the intimate scale to 1999. to his undertaking of a variety of State of Florida, Department of State, fabrication on the monumental scale of commissions in the nineties-commis Division of Cultural Affairs, public artworks-came in 1973 when he Throughout his career, Paley has received sions like the sixty-foot tall monotone cor Florida Arts Council, won the commission for the gates of the numerous honors, among them a National ten steel GenesseePassage for the Bausch & and the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist's Lomb corporate headquarters in New York National Endowment for the Arts. American Art in Washington, D.C. Albert Fellowship (1984); Gold Medals from the or the highly polychromatic Olympiafor the MUSEUM PRESS Paley: Sculpture, Drawings, Grapliics and International Teaching Center of Metal Atlanta Promenade II Building; such works Educational Programming for K-12 and DecorativeArts is a spectrum of Paley's Design in Aachen, Germany ( 1986 and demonstrate that his eye for color or Seniors underwritten in part by grants Editor-in-Chief: A. Palladino-Craig works, maquettes and proposals for major 1991); the Art in Public Space Award, DFA changing shadow is unequivocal, his reach from the Communiversity Partnership Graphic Design: Julienne T. Mason commissions, decorative arts, drawings, Ltd. [ 1988); Honorary Doctorates of Fine and scale commanding. There seem to be Tallahassee Cultural Services. Printer: Progressive, Jacksonville, FL. prints and sculpture: what each of these Arts-from the State University of New no limitations at his studio, not in terms of expressions has in common is the York at Brockport, from St. Lawrence dimension, surface patina or articulation. ©2001 imprimatur of the Artist, the virtual University, and from the University of He has achieved that goal of all Florida State University thumbprint of his conceptual design. Rochester, Rochester, New York ( 1989); independent artists, producing superlative Covera11d above: Details of FloridaState UniversityCenter Museum of Fine Arts the Preservation Award from the Preserva objects unlike any others, works that bear Gates,fom1ed and fabricated steel, stainless steel. and School of Visual Arts & Dance Paley has set his creative mind and capable tion Alliance in Boston [ 1991); and an his distinctive imprimatur. bronze, 423 x 7 x I 50 inches. Collection Florida State J.L. Draper, Dean hand to a broad array of projects; these Artist's Fellowship from the New York University, Art in State Buildings Program, State of Florida, installed April 29, 1999. (Photograph Bill All Rights Reserved range from the 260-foot bridge railings for Foundation of the Arts ( 1991). Paley Allys Palladino-Craig Langford) ISBN 1-889282-11-1 the Main Street Redevelopment Project of Studios, Ltd , have produced such impres- Director ALBERT PALEY------------------------------------ 4 5 CRAIG ADCOCK ALBERTPALEY effort, and they touch upon a primal kind of to that of such historical figures as Rene CraigAdcock understanding that is instantiated through Lalique and C. R. Ashbee, and his design the manipulation of material. As is perhaps sensibilities are especially close to those of true of all craft work, they must be worn, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Herbert Albert Paley produces well-crafted works conflict between art and craft is a false worn out, used, used up, felt. In short, they MacNair, and their wives, Margaret 7 ranging from jewelry to large-scale installa one. 3 must be experienced, lived with, and not Macdonald and Frances Macdonald. Paley tions. His successful career was founded Paley's first mature works were just comprehended abstractly. reinforced his own thinking by looking at on the series of iron and bronze gates jewelry. Pendant completed in 1970, is Paley's jewelry shows the influence of these artists, and their examples helped 5 produced during the early 1970s, but he made of silver, gold, moonstones, tourma his teacher Stanley Lechtzin and other him realize the unique vitality of craft. has also created furniture, decorative line crystal. ivory, and pearls and measures American jewelry makers associated with Although aware that modernist critics architectural screens, cast-iron grilles to over 13 inches long and over 7 inches wide. the post-World War II studio craft/art maintain that it is discursively limited, protect trees along Pennsylvania Avenue in Pin also completed in 1970, is made of movement. In addition to Lechtzin, he Paley is not convinced. He feels that craft Washington, D.C., and monumental public silver, 14 carat gold, moonstones, tourma often mentions such artists as Arline Fisch, can say a great deal. Although it may not sculptures. Paley works primarily in metal line crystal. and pearls and measures over 7 Olaf Skoogfors, and John Prip as inspira involve itself with theoretical representa using a wide variety of techniques. He is inches long and 8 inches wide. Pendantfrom tions. 0 tion, it can express meaning, just like art. especially well-known for his forging, an 1972, is made of forged and fabricated Paley's jewelry can also be compared Indeed, its material presence in the here almost forgotten craft that he is largely sterling silver with copper inlay, and responsible for reviving.' Paley is a copper, with glass, amethyst, kunzite, and metalsmith and a sculptor, and in both kunzite crystals and measures over 16 Lechtzin's influence goes beyond formal con more like art. Fora tellingcritiqueofherunderlying capacities, he relies upon his skill, his "art," inches long and 6 inches wide. All of these cerns;