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December 1997. Granite, steel. Dimensions: 88 × 60 × 42 in (224 × 152 × 107 cm). Collection: SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, New York. Gift of Don and Kathy Lougheed with additional support of Robert and Wendy Wagner.
Pompadour refers to Madame de Pompadour and, more specifically, to the distinctive hairstyle associated with her and its many later iterations—from the Gibson Girls of the early 20th century to the exaggerated pompadours of the 1950s. The sculpture’s granite and steel configuration—with its upward sweep, crest, elaborate profile, and figurative quality—evokes the form and character of the pompadour.
Van Alstine’s sculptures from this period frequently use titles to introduce figurative, mythological, historical, nautical, or metaphorical associations into otherwise abstract arrangements. His work, therefore, is not simply formal abstraction; titles, as in this case, can provide an important interpretive key.
December 1997. Granite, steel. Dimensions: 88 × 60 × 42 in (224 × 152 × 107 cm). Collection: SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, New York. Gift of Don and Kathy Lougheed with additional support of Robert and Wendy Wagner.
Pompadour refers to Madame de Pompadour and, more specifically, to the distinctive hairstyle associated with her and its many later iterations—from the Gibson Girls of the early 20th century to the exaggerated pompadours of the 1950s. The sculpture’s granite and steel configuration—with its upward sweep, crest, elaborate profile, and figurative quality—evokes the form and character of the pompadour.
Van Alstine’s sculptures from this period frequently use titles to introduce figurative, mythological, historical, nautical, or metaphorical associations into otherwise abstract arrangements. His work, therefore, is not simply formal abstraction; titles, as in this case, can provide an important interpretive key.
