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Stunning Restorations Visitors to the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden and Four Arts Mall will notice restorations to two of our signature sculptures, King Parrot by Jim Dine and Intetra by Isamu Noguchi. Alan Solomon wrote of Jim Dine, whom he had included among ‘Four Younger Artists’ in his sensational U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1964, that “Although he is often counted among the Pop Artists, Dine’s work really relates to that of no other artist. Starting from a point of view close to Rauschenberg and Johns, he had evolved toward a highly personal mode of expression.” Dine, painter, sculptor and print maker, was born in Cincinatti, Ohio on June 16, 1935. The motif of the heart in Dine’s work goes back at least to 1966, and to his earliest major sculpture, Nancy and I at Ithaca (Straw Heart), when Dine was teaching at Cornell University. Nancy Minto (d. 2020) was his wife and it has been said that his hearts are “touching and powerful, full of joy and affection.” This is poignant, given that Mary Tremaine Hildt’s gift commemorates her late son. The parrot is actually a scarlet macaw from the Amazon, where it has been associated by Indians with the transmigration of souls (a ‘psychopomp’ is a carrier of souls). In 1966 the Arte Povera artist Jannis Kounellis placed a live macaw before a sheet of metal to construct the metaphor of art reflecting and mimicking (‘parroting’) reality. The macaw gives us a sense of aspiration and of the joy of color expressed in paint. The work’s paint had faded in recent years, so The Four Arts arranged for Dine to oversee the restoration work and approved the final product, which returns King Parrot to its original, dramatic bright colors.
Photos by ELVIO SALAZAR Jim Dine, American (b. 1935) King Parrot, 1995 Painted and polished bronze Gift of Dorothy Tremaine Hildt in memory of her son K. Bryant Wick, Jr. Collection of The Society of the Four Arts, 2014.1
Intetra has graced the Intracoastal Waterway at The Four Arts since 1976. Over years of exposure to the weather, the clear linear patterns, lines, and details buffed into the sculpture had faded away. They have now been restored, with the conservator adding a layer of sealant to protect it against the elements. Isamu Noguchi, Japanese, (1904-1988) Intetra, 1976 Steel Gift of The Ziuta and Joseph James Akston Foundation Collection of The Society of the Four Arts, 1976.2
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Fall 2020 Folio
