Beverly Pepper: Small Sculptures

40 WEST 57TH STREET | NEW YORK | 10019 212-541-4900 | MARLBOROUGHGALLERY.COM

BEVERLY PEPPER SMALL SCULPTURES

COVER: Sulla II, 2014 steel, unique 17.7 x 16.9 x 9.85 in, 44.9 x 42.9 x 25 cm stone base: 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 in, 29.9 x 29.9 x 3 cm

Plotina, 2014 steel, unique 19.7 x 15.75 x 13.75 in, 50 x 40 x 34.9 cm stone base: 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 in, 29.9 x 29.9 x 3 cm

Rhea Silvia, 2014, steel, unique 15.7 x 13.8 x 8.5 in, 39.8 x 35 x 21.5 cm stone base: 9.85 x 9.85 x 1.2 in, 25 x 25 x 3 cm

Beverly Pepper’s masterful manipulation of steel demonstrates the same physical strength and elegant geometry that can be found in her largescale sculptures. Like many of her monumental works, the small steel sculptures in this exhibition engage with opposing forces – vertical and horizontal, interior and exterior, past and present. The artist explains, “Opposing forces are integral to any serious work of art, especially in using organic forms within geometric ones or vice-versa. These opposing forces give a dynamic to the work, with an internal dialogue.” Rosalind Krauss, the venerable art historian and critic, notes the recurrence of the curved form in Pepper’s monumental works as “marrying the vertical with the horizontal.” The same dynamic relationships can be applied to Pepper’s small sculptures, in the interplay of convex and concave forms which creates a meditation of space that is at once interior and exterior, as well as dominant and intimate. Pepper describes the effect of the upward curve as “arched over the viewer creating an inside-outside space…a space that seemed to embed the viewer within the sculpture.”

Although the sculptures are physically small, they are monumental in feeling and impression.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF VINCENZO GERMINO

Clodia Medea, 2014 steel, unique 15 x 16.5 x 10.6 in, 38.1 x 41.9 x 26.9 cm stone base: 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 in, 29.9 x 29.9 x 3 cm

Clodia Medea Inox, 2015 Stainless steel, unique 15 x 16.5 x 10.6 in, 38.1 x 41.9 x 26.9 cm stone base: 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 in, 29.9 x 29.9 x 3 cm

Plotina, 2014 steel, unique 19.7 x 15.75 x 13.75 in, 50 x 40 x 34.9 cm stone base: 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 in, 29.9 x 29.9 x 3 cm

Drusilla, 2014 stainless steel, unique 18.5 x 15.75 x 7.9 in, 46.9 x 40 x 20 cm stone base: 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 in, 29.9 x 29.9 x 3 cm

Drusilla, 2014 steel, unique 18.5 x 15.75 x 7.9 in, 46.9 x 40 x 20 cm stone base: 11.8 x 11.8 x 1.2 in, 29.9 x 29.9 x 3 cm

Octavia, 2014, steel 30.3 x 25.2 x 20.9 in, 76.9 x 64 x 53 cm stone base: 10.25 x 10.25 x 1 in, 26 x 26 x 2.54 cm