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Mark di Suvero’s Latest Exhibition Opens Memorial Day Weekend

by Deborah Wilk | Thursday, May 26, 2011 | 2 Comments

Mark di Suvero (American, born China, 1933), Figolu, 2005–2011; Will, 1994, The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection; Mahatma, 1978–1979, Storm King Art Center; Gift of The Edward R. Broida Trust.

It’s around this time of year that most American urban dwellers feel the need for a respite from the noise and congestion of concrete canyons. Fortunately, Memorial Day, now synonymous with the beginning of summer, as well as somber remembrance, offers a three-day weekend to inaugurate beach outings and barbeques. For New Yorkers who neglected to make getaway plans, however, Storm King Art Center has planned quite a treat. As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, one of the art world’s most beloved sculpture parks breaks the borders of its 500-acre Hudson Valley property with its first ever off-site exhibition: the largest outdoor presentation of works by Mark di Suvero opens to the public on Governors Island today and will remain on view through September 25.

Mark di Suvero (American, born China, 1933), Figolu, 2005–2011; Will, 1994, The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection; Mahatma, 1978–1979, Storm King Art Center; Gift of The Edward R. Broida Trust.

Drawn from public and private collections, pieces include 1994’s “Will,” a 42-foot-high I-beam sculpture from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, and “Fruit Loops,” of 2003, a 16-foot-high work of bent steel from the Collection of Agnes Gund. Several works from Storm King’s own collection were disassembled and placed on flatbeds that were barged down river where they were reinstalled on the 172-acre island in New York Harbor throughout last month’s near continual rain. Apparently, the mounting of 1993-95’s “Old Buddy (For Rosko),” a colossal composition of vertical and horizontal girders posed a particular challenge. The 11 works on view range in age from 1977 to the present. “Figolu,” of 2005-2011, strikes a bold red-orange silhouette against the island’s backdrop of water, sky, and towering skyline. After the free ferry ride and a walk (or bicycle ride) around the former military base’s buildings and lawns, Manhattan seems a world away.

Images by Jerry L. Thompson.