The following article
is from the Boston Globe, Date: July 31, 1996 Section: Living, page
E1Ý
" Sculpture Terrace Gets Off To A Teetering Start"
ByÝ Christine Temin, Globe Staff
Some of John Van Alstine's sculptures look as though they should,
by rights, topple over. Their shapes lurch and crane their way into
space, but are tethered to the ground with hefty hunks of stone:
The sense of opposing forces gives them visceral power.Ý Van Alstine
is the first artist to exhibit on the 4,000-square-foot sculpture
terrace at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln. The terrace, and the
small adjacent indoor gallery where Van Alstine's smaller pieces
and works on paper are on display, are part of the DeCordova's recent
ambitious renovation. They add to the museum's already considerable
strength in three-dimensional work. The DeCordova boasts New England's
only sculpture park of its kind -- public, open year-round, with
periodically changing works. It features more than 50 sculptures,
generally one per artist. The new terrace, by contrast, will display
a selection of pieces by a single sculptor, giving a better idea
of the scope of that artist's style. Those pieces will remain on
view for an entire year, to allow the public the chance to see them
surrounded by snow or competing with fall foliage -- a very good
thing, given that changing weather and seasons can affect our perceptions
of outdoor sculpture profoundly.Ý An artist from Wells, N.Y., Van
Alstine has an international reputation. He is a safe rather than
scintillating choice to inaugurate the terrace. He's not as well
known hereabouts as the next artist whose works will grace the DeCordova's
new space, Boston sculptor Carlos Dorrien. Nor is his work particularly
radical or challenging. He's a classic modernist, sometimes compared
with David Smith and Mark di Suvero. He's stronger on shape than
on surfaces or materials. The materials he favors -- metal, stone,
found objects -- place him squarely in the mainstream of 20th-century
modernism. So does his emphasis on form. The works aren't completely
abstract, though. There are identifiable objects within them, and
even suggestions of narrative.
One of the more satisfying aspects of Van Alstine's work is its
occasional flourishes of wit. In his "Atlas (High Roller)," an orb
sprouting a goofy stem shape looks like a variation on Claes Oldenburg's
giant cherry sculpture -- or a bomb with a fuse: There's considerable
ambiguity here. In his 1994 granite and bronze "Diagonal Tendencies
II," an angular stone struggling upward is capped by a cast of part
of an airplane propeller, which also looks like Mickey Mouse ears.
This particular piece features several Van Alstine signatures. One
is the series of ridges carved into the granite. Scarification that
is evidence of a human hand on the rock, the ridges also suggest
steps, toeholds or even a spine -- all images of ascent. Another
signature is the sense of lightness Van Alstine achieves despite
the weight of his materials. In "Diagonal Tendencies II," as in
other works, he lifts part of the stone off the ground, in this
case propping it up on a bronze cone.
In "Tether (Boys Toys)," Van Alstine casts himself as snake charmer,
coaxing a thick steel chain up toward the sky, where it culminates
in a battered airplane fuel tank that looks like a missile and is
also indisputably phallic. In a strong wind, the tank/ missile rocks
slightly, as if in a futile effort to fly. It is preposterous, but
also poignant.
The largest and most dramatic piece in the show is the 1996 "Charon's
Steel Styx Passage," based on the character who in Greek mythology
ferries the souls of the dead over the river Styx. At the bottom
of the piece is a huge buoy whose shape suggests a planet and whose
mottled surface hints at continents and islands. But the buoy also
retains handlelike appendages that hint at its prior use, which
Van Alstine makes no attempt to camouflage. The long beam that angles
its way past the orb ends in a little boat aimed at the heavens,
a metal ribbon fluttering from it like a lifeline, an oar sticking
up as if rowing the air. The placement of "Charon's Steel Styx Passage"
against the backdrop of the large pond below the museum is felicitous,
since a journey over water is one of the work's themes.Ý Inside
the little gallery that acts as anteroom to the terrace are a couple
of Van Alstine's smaller sculptures and a selection of his works
on paper. The smallest three-dimensional work, "Charting the Course
II," is to the larger works what bonsai is to a full-size pine.
A drafting compass swings out from a rock, one arm holding a vertical
shape resembling a raft or shell. Here is a miniature version of
Van Alstine's formula of stone anchoring a metal form that soars.
As for his drawings, they're explosive, energetic and confident,
and they demonstrate something the sculptures can't -- the artist's
fine sense of color.Ý "John Van Alstine: Vessels and Voyages" was
organized by DeCordova associate curator Nick Capasso, who also
wrote the useful brochure for this show, which runs through May
11, 1997.Ý
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