Mark di Suvero’s Monumental Legacy

On the occasion of Mark di Suvero's 90th birthday last month, Paula Cooper Gallery in New York assembled an exhibition honouring the artist.

Mark di Suvero: Painting and Sculpture (9 September–21 October 2023) brings together four recent sculptures and two historic works that provide context and continuity to di Suvero's diverse output and his contribution to the field of abstract expressionist sculpture over the past six decades.

Di Suvero's sinuous, monumental sculptures—the best-known works of his practice—comprise amalgamations of steel beams outstretched in various directions, often extended towards the sky. They are seen throughout the United States, including at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.

Di Suvero's works have steadily gained acclaim since his breakout exhibition in 1960 at the Green Gallery, New York, which comprised small wax figures of hands and large-scale timber sculptures that di Suvero completed as he recovered from major spinal injuries he suffered earlier that year. In a review of the exhibition, Donald Judd described the size and force of one such sculpture as 'thunderous'.¹

Di Suvero's relationship with Paula Cooper dates back to the same era. In 1966 Cooper became the second director of the influential Park Place Gallery, an experimental, cooperative space with an overarching focus on geometric abstraction that was founded in 1962 by ten artists including di Suvero. When the gallery dissolved in 1967, di Suvero gave Cooper a small sculpture to help fund the opening of her eponymous space—a testament to his support of their collective vision, according to Steven Henry, director of Paula Cooper Gallery.

'So much of what Mark has done has been about giving back and improving the world through art, which sounds so idealistic but comes from a genuine place,' Henry said.

'Park Place itself was built to support artists who were working outside of the mainstream and weren't being shown by the uptown galleries. Di Suvero always had a democratic outlook, and that's something that's imbued in his work.'

The centrepiece of di Suvero's latest show is the nearly 15-feet-tall sculpture Sooner or Later (2022), a work that appears almost floral in its composition, consisting of steel plates that flourish from steel beams emerging from the ground. Like many of di Suvero's sculptures, this work was created with salvaged industrial materials and welded into formation.

Di Suvero's trio of large-scale steel pieces are balanced by his vibrant abstract painting Nova Diptych (1980–82), which features rhythmic, cascading daubs and slivers of colour made on two canvases installed perpendicular to each other in a corner. Each canvas is framed at the top and bottom with plywood, giving the work a sculptural quality. While di Suvero's paintings have often been eclipsed by his sculptures, it remains consistent practice for the artist.

Although di Suvero's practice has become synonymous with monumentality, the vast majority of his works are smaller-scale pieces that can be completed without assistants. Examples in this exhibition include the stainless-steel sculpture Untitled (2018) shown near the entrance of the gallery. Notably, di Suvero's entire oeuvre includes just over 200 sculptures that his studio considers 'large-scale works' (works that are over 12-feet-tall), but he has produced over 800 sculptures that are five-feet-tall or under.

The artist began working from an aerial perspective around the mid-1960s, using cranes, hoists, forklifts, and cherry pickers as he innovated techniques that would allow him to continue making despite his lingering mobility issues.

One of the earliest works completed using a crane is Crete (1967), which was included in di Suvero's recent retrospective Steel Like Paper (28 January–27 August 2023) at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas. The show was di Suvero's first major survey in the U.S. since his cross-borough presentation at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1975.

'Mark's works are brought to life by their engagement with the viewer,' said Jeremy Strick, director of the Nasher. 'That's one reason why most of it is installed in public spaces—because they are rooted in this idea of humanity and community.'

Consistent with this public-minded approach, in 1986 di Suvero converted an abandoned dump in Queens into the idyllic Socrates Sculpture Park. The outdoor space hosts seasonal art exhibitions and community programmes, and is located adjacent to di Suvero's studio, Spacetime C.C. Once dubbed an '(almost) secret commune,'² it is a complex of warehouses along the East River that house works by other artists like Christopher Yockey and Daniel Roberts, who work there as di Suvero's assistants.

Earlier this year, Roberts' work Gathering Currents (2023) was installed in the nearby Greenwich Village. Comprising knots of hand-bent stainless steel that evoke the tidal changes of the river, it is a subtle homage to di Suvero and his lifelong commitment to visualising the sublime and championing other artists on the same path. —[O]

¹ Donald Judd, 'In the Galleries,' Arts, October 1960.

² M.H. Miller, 'A Contemporary Art Titan's (Almost) Secret Commune.' The New York Times. 27 October 2016.