Lin Emery

Note: Born in New York City, Lin Emery first moved to New Orleans in the 1940s and spent much of her adult life in the city, where she was an integral part of the city’s art scene for over six decades. In the late 1940s, she traveled to Europe where she studied figure drawing at la Grande Chaumière in the Montparnasse arts district of Paris and visited New Mexico, where she exhibited paintings at the Harwood Museum in Taos. In 1949, a return trip to Paris marked the inauguration of Lin Emery – the sculptor – and the narrative of her work from the static to the animated is a compelling one. Inspired by her mentor, Ossip Zadkine and the Romanesque works in the Musée de l’homme, Emery incorporated the aesthetics and ideologies of both into her early religious works. Back in her adopted home of New Orleans in 1951 as a studio assistant to Enrique Alferez, she was approached by the Father Judge Mission Seminary to create a series of sculptures for their church in Virginia. The resulting works are elongated and elegant figures representing familiar religious characters. In 1952, Emery attended the Sculpture Center in New York and learn how to weld and cast metal. Her main influence was Seymour Lipton and his textured welded forms. With metal being her newfound medium of choice, Emery focused her efforts on making it move. Inspired by the small, fortuitous incident of witnessing a drop of water hit a spoon and make it rock in her kitchen sink, Emery concentrated on building moving water forms she dubbed “aquamobiles.” These would be her first foray into kinetic sculpture. In 1965, Emery began experimenting with magnets, which she would hide in both the individual elements of her works and in the hidden motorized base, the rotation of which would cause sporadic, undulating movements. While the “aquamobiles” and “magnetmobiles” were effective in their capacity to convey a certain vitality, they would prove too constraining in their reliance on electricity and pumps. It was her 1977 discovery and subsequent usage of ball bearings in her works that would transform the way her iconic sculptures move, giving them a freedom and autonomy that was unattainable previously. With this new lightness in articulation, she took to the wind, which would prove her most reliable source of movement.

Emery achieved international acclaim for her sculpture. A feature in Art in America in 1955 led to a traveling exhibition throughout museums in the South, and in 1956, Emery was a charter member of the Orleans Gallery, the city’s first collective artist-run contemporary art space. Her list of honors and exhibitions is extensive, including a retrospective at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1996. Her works exude grace, motion and delicateness, all traits contrasting beautifully with the strength of the polished metal medium. Her public sculptures enhance the landscape of New Orleans and beyond and serve as a testament to the lasting impact of this pioneering female artist.

Ref.: Kemp, John R. Lin Emery. 64 Parishes. www.64parishes.org. Accessed Mar. 3, 2023; Palmedo, Philip F. Lin Emery. Manchester: Hudson Hills, 2011.

64. Ida Rittenberg Kohlmeyer (American/Louisiana, 1912-1997), “Semiotic 86-4”, 1986, mixed media on canvas, signed and dated lower left, “Moody Gallery, Houston, TX” label with title and date on stretcher, 36 1/4 in. x 49 in., framed, overall 37 in. x 50 in. x 1 1/2 in. [$20000/30000]

Provenance: Moody Gallery, Houston, TX, 1986.