REPORT FROM THE STUDIO: ARTISTS WORKING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC These are unprecedented times. For weeks and months, museums and galleries have been forced to keep their doors closed. Popular art events, from Grand Rapids’ own ArtPrize to the international art fair Art Basel, were cancelled. Artists were isolated and often cut off from their studio facilities and routines. With a great degree of concern, I contacted some of the artists that are represented in the permanent collection of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, including Richard Hunt, Jaume Plensa, Sophie Ryder and Bill Woodrow. The good news is that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, these artists have continued to work. Some of them have had to adjust their studio practice, others did not have to change their routine at all. I expected large-production studio work to come to a complete stop, but Richard Hunt shared with me that he still has a team of assistants who continue to fabricate large commissioned sculptures while wearing masks and taking proper precautions. They are currently working on a piece for
Richard Hunt with Lena and Fred Meijer at the opening of his exhibition, Richard Hunt: American Visionary, in 2000.
Jaume Plensa in his studio.
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the Art Institute of Chicago. When speaking on the phone with Mr. Hunt, I asked him specifically whether the sculpture Column of the Free Spirit, installed at Meijer Gardens in 2000, had a new significance today during the time of Black Lives Matter. Mr. Hunt said that Column of the Free Spirit was always intended to be a work that had a welcoming expression, conveying a sense of uplift and expansion. He does not consider it a work that addresses specific social issues. Mr. Hunt took a moment to remember Fred & Lena Meijer and concluded that Fred Meijer wanted everybody to be better off. Jaume Plensa, whose commissioned sculpture Utopia is being installed in Meijer Gardens’ new Garden Pavilion, is based in Spain, one of the European countries hardest hit by the pandemic. Mr. Plensa has largely quarantined himself, while working on a new series of drawings, entitled April Is the Cruelest Month. Interview and essay by Jochen Wierich, Curator of Sculpture & Sculpture Exhibitions
Richard Hunt from his recent visit to Meijer Gardens in 2019.
Richard Hunt. Column of the Free Spirit, 2000. Bronze.
CLOCK WISE: JOCHEN WIERICH, PLENSA STUDIO BARCELONA AND RICHARD GR AY GALLERY, CHICAGO/NEW YORK, WILLIAM J. HEBERT
