LONDON.- Pangolin London is hosting an exhibition of American abstract sculptor Bruce Beasley’s most recent work. Persistently pushing the boundaries of sculpture making throughout his career, this exhibition includes brand new pieces in a range of metals including bronze, iron and silver, emphasising Bruce Beasley’s position as the preeminent godfather in the use of digital technology in sculpture.
During a successful career of more than five decades experimenting with digital technologies and creating a new abstract language in sculpture, Bruce Beasley has established himself as one of America’s most noteworthy and innovative contemporary artists.
Beasley’s inspiration originates predominantly from organic structures and the natural world. Through close observation and investigation of elemental forces, he has developed his own unique language that is instantly recognisable. Widely known for their strong geometric structures, Bruce Beasley’s earlier work of intersecting cuboid blocks explore the simple beauty of shape, mass and geometry. The bronze patinas whose colours blend from brown to green and yellow, intensify the visual impact and compliment the distinctive cubic forms.
His most recent pieces, including a striking work cast in sterling silver and large bronzes in a midnight blue patina, reveal complex and beautiful curves and twists. He manipulates mass and volume, each swirl playing with the sense of balance/imbalance, giving the impression of movement. One of his new pieces, Torqueri IVB, refers to the action of twisting, bending, or distorting.
This idea developed from his desire to give expression and meaning to winding shapes which he can only realize through his analytical and non-traditional technological approach to making sculpture. In order to play with the arrangement and fluidity of shapes, he employs digital technologies and three-dimensional design to produce more precise outlines and curls.
For the last 30 years, Bruce Beasley has been exploring the interactive boundaries between creativity and technology by using computer based programmes to create his work, pioneering a revolution in the sculptural process, years ahead of his artistic peers. ‘I’ve always held the belief that fine art is the vision of the artist and not defined by the tool of production. These works use technology that best allows me to investigate and communicate what has fascinated me for over sixty years – the aesthetic and emotional potential of complex shapes in space.’
Born in Los Angeles in 1939, Bruce Beasley attended Dartmouth College from 1957-59, and the University of California, Berkeley, from 1959-62. Bursting into the art world in 1962 at the height of the abstract sculpture movement, he has since then been exhibited worldwide in a great number of solo & group exhibitions, receiving international acclaim. He has worked on numerous commissions, and his work is in the permanent collections of 37 art museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, the Stadtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim,Germany, and the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
