Albert Paley Nov Dec13

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FREE Pension Decision: Lump Sum or Lifetime Income? 55 The Creative Energy of Quilting PLUS Issue 24 November / December 2013 For Active Adults in the Rochester Area Job Market Local experts: Fewer jobs, lower salaries The Invictas 1960s rock band continues to entertain Volunteering Levels are at a 10-year high among 55-plus MAN OF STEEL Magnolia’s owner on hosting World renowned scultptor Albert Paley still President Obama pushing boundaries of metal art for lunch 55+ cover Manof Steel Rochester sculptor Albert Paley has been pushing the boundaries of metal art for 45 years By Amy Cavalier hances are you’ve passed by techniques, he’s transformed metal into “He is, without a doubt, the top one of world-renowned artist everything from jewelry, candlesticks person in the world,” said his wife Albert Paley’s sculptures and tables, to ornate gates, fireplaces Frances Paley, a metal and print artist at Rochester’s National and sculptures up to 100 feet tall and herself. “Nobody can forge and form Museum of Play or at the Rochester 100 tons in weight. the way he can and that’s just a fact. CInstitute of Technology. “When new opportunities or new In the way he has evolved, no one can There’s also a good chance you did experiences would arise, I would touch him.” not even realize what was right under take them on and then inadvertently Children and adults alike are your nose. I created the skills and the disciplines charmed and mystified by Paley’s 130- “There’s a tremendous creative to do other things,” Paley said. “The foot long archway Animals Always force here and I think we don’t have drive was finding out what my abilities for the St. Louis Zoo. His ceremonial many opportunities to see things like are or what my boundaries are or what archways grace major cities including this or people like this,” said R. Roger it is all about.” Philadelphia and Iowa State University Remington, Vignelli distinguished “Paley is one of the primary in Ames, Iowa, and he has permanent professor of design at RIT. “We know American sculptors,” said Bruce collections in major museums including about it because we’ve read about Beasley, a widely recognized and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Picasso and great artists and great accomplished American sculptor New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in sculptors, but having him here in our based in Oakland, Calif. “His work Boston and Houston, and the Victoria presence and being close to the whole is very vigorous and he’s a master at and Albert Museum in London. process is such a valuable opportunity bending and shaping of the metal. He This year, Paley unveiled one for everyone.” manipulates metal in a way that’s quite of his most ambitious projects yet Since coming to Rochester to teach unusual and pretty exceptional.” —13 sculptures on New York City’s at RIT in 1969, Paley has assembled a Known for his signature style Park Avenue — and he completed body of work that includes over 60 of forging cold hard metal into soft, “Soliloquy,” the centerpiece of the large-scale, site-specific sculptures in ribbon-like shapes, audiences around Memorial Art Gallery of the University the continental United States, Asia the world have been wowed by of Rochester’s Centennial Sculpture and Europe and hundreds of private Paley’s portal gates at the Renwick Park unveiled in October. At the age and public commission pieces. Using Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute in of 69, there is no punch clock, no 9-to-5 an amalgamation of materials and Washington, D.C. schedule, no retiring for Paley. Art isn’t 28 55 PLUS - November / December 2013 55+ cover Albert Paley working in his studio in Gates. November / December 2013 - 55 PLUS 29 55+ cover something he does to make a living. school working as a studio assistant. Frolich. “This is my life,” he said. “Because of that I had the keys Landing a job as a professor From class artist to the to the school so when security would of goldsmithing at the School for Smithsonian kick people out, I would work until American Crafts at RIT in 1969, Paley two, three, four in the morning and said, afforded him the luxury of not Growing up in Philadelphia, Paley use all the facilities, so I just worked having to compromise his aesthetic gravitated toward the arts. Voted class non-stop,” he said. direction in order to make a living as artist, he worked in the art department In his senior year, Paley was an artist. at Gimbels department store in high chosen for a teaching assistanceship “It allowed me to be very idealistic school. Using $600 in war bonds, assisting professors and teaching and very much a purist about what I he enrolled at Tyler School of Art at at night and during summers. He was about,” he said. Temple University in 1962. He likens continued teaching through his Remington was a faculty member becoming an artist to a monk taking a graduate studies. when Paley began teaching at the vow of poverty. By the mid-1960s, Paley had begun college. “When I realized, whether it was displaying his work at museums and “I don’t think Albert has changed an epiphany or not, that this was the art colleges and being featured in trade that much in terms of his way of life that I wanted to lead, you were magazines throughout New England. working, his way of being,” he said. dedicating yourself to a lifestyle and In 1968, using earnings from selling “He’s always been a person of integrity. dedicating yourself to a process that his art, Paley took a trip to Europe I feel he’s always been a master at was not economically viable at all,” where he studied the techniques of working with form, shapes and three he said. European metal work and met famed dimensions, whether it’s a tiny piece Majoring in sculpture with a minor jewelers and metalsmiths, including of jewelry or a large architectural in metal, Paley paid his way through the Pomodoro brothers and Max structure.” Reaching new heights: These four photos show the process from the drawing to the first cardboard model to the second cardboard model to the final installed piece... this is Languorous Repose which is located at 66th Street and Park Avenue in New York City. 30 55 PLUS - November / December 2013 55+ cover After four years at RIT, Paley lows through the years. He has been he would not have made it,” said went to teach drawings, 3-D design, the subject of multiple books and Frances. goldsmithing and sculpture at SUNY- various films including “Albert Paley: Made in Rochester Brockport. He and his wife met in 1974. Man of Steel” produced by American She was studying metal work at San Public Television. An endowed chair Paley has four large public Diego State University where he was at the College of Imaging Arts and artworks on display in Rochester. In giving a lecture. Sciences at RIT, Paley lectures world- addition to his site-specific sculpture “He was very well known even wide and at universities, museums and at the National Museum of Play, his then,” Frances said. “He was only 30 art forums in the U.S. on a monthly 40-foot-tall “Genesee Passage” has years old but he was the top person basis. been located outside the former Bausch in jewelry art form anywhere. We’re In 1995, Paley was the first non- & Lomb headquarters since 1996. talking United States and Europe.” architect to win the institute honors “Sentinel,” a 73-foot steel and bronze His first public commission was for award from the American Institute of sculpture, has adorned the entrance to the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Architects. RIT since 2003 and in 2006, he created American Art Museum in 1974 when In 2002, Paley was severely burned “Threshold” for Klein Steel’s services he completed the Portal Gates. He then in a propane explosion. Paley spent headquarters. created the Paley fence at the Hunter one month in the burn unit at Strong That only scratches the surface of Museum of Art in Chattanooga, Tenn. Memorial Hospital. After undergoing Paley’s resume. And it’s all done right in 1976. multiple surgeries and skin grafts, and here in Rochester. The Strong Sculpture in front of working determinedly through rehab, “There’s no other place like it the National Museum of Play was his Paley healed, returning to his work. in the country,” said Frances of her first site-specific sculpture in 1982. “If he hadn’t been as close to husband’s Rochester studio. Paley’s career has seen highs and the hospital as we were, it’s possible Paley’s studio was located on West November / December 2013 - 55 PLUS 31 55+ cover Main Street from the early 1970s until of this business.” Paley’s “Genesee 1985 when he moved to a 15,000-square- At the studio, towering sculptures Passage,” foot studio on South Washington Street. draw visitors inside to where Paley’s 1996, rises on Three years ago, he moved into his lamps are perched on desks, combining the grounds of current 40,000-square-foot workshop art and functionality. Several massive Bausch & Lomb located off Lyell Avenue in Gates. gates grace the large open space and headquarters. There are 13 full-time employees, the sculptures rest seemingly precariously most he’s ever employed.

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