Crossroads of American Sculpture: David Smith, George Rickey, John Chamberlain, Robert Indiana, William T. Wiley, Bruce Nauman [Hardcover]

Holliday T. Day (Author), Dore Ashton (Author), Lena Vigna (Author), Indianapolis Museum of Art (Corporate Author), New Orleans Museum of Art (Corporate Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000 | ISBN-10: 0936260726 | ISBN-13: 978-0936260723

Crossroads of American Sculpture examines the works of six artists whose lives are linked by their place in the history of 20th-century sculpture. Painters and sculptors began to explore nontraditional subjects and to search for abstract ways of representing their ideas early in the 20th century, but it was during the period from 1945 to 2000 that sculpture radically expanded its forms, materials and subjects. Crossroads of American Sculpture looks at this remarkable period in which artists expressed new ideas and employed new mediums, including industrial materials, words, found objects, photography, neon, video and live performances. The resulting works include Smith’s "drawings in air" and his Forging and Cubi series; Rickey’s mesmerizing kinetic sculptures; Chamberlain’s colorful crushed auto bodies; Indiana’s wooden herms and LOVE sculptures; Wiley’s punning assemblages, like Nomad Is an Island, and the wide range of Nauman’s work, including his neon, fiber-glass, bronze and video pieces. More than 150 works by the artists, including 60 drawings, are reproduced in color.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 252 pages
• Publisher: Indianapolis Museum of Art (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0936260726
• ISBN-13: 978-0936260723
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,073,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars outstanding critiques, but deeply flawed in scope ..., September 1, 2009

By 

Glenn Ralston (Bloomington, IN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crossroads of American Sculpture: David Smith, George Rickey, John Chamberlain, Robert Indiana, William T. Wiley, Bruce Nauman (Hardcover)

This "Crossroads" is a landmark publication; ...outstanding critiques, but deeply flawed in scope ... This is just another sad reminder to me that America's world-famed sculptor Isamu Noguchi--who grew up for four years in a local family as a typical Hoosier teenager in LaPorte, Indiana and going to its public High School, graduated there in 1922. These little known years, of "Sam Gilmour" the child becoming Isamu Noguchi a young man, shaped the spirit and the genius of this future world-famed artist. Academics, Scholars and Curators, and 4th-grade teachers of History everywhere will be intriqued. We can only hope now that one of our Universities or Museums somewhere will correct this oversight with one of the new digital iPhone/iPod apps on this forgotten heritage.

Through no fault of its own, the Indianapolis Museum of Art's neglect to include Noguchi in this landmark publication simply mirrored the misdirection by this historic Category Error of the Art World at large. Previous misinformation dominated our perception of Noguchi's education as though a foreign child was sent to America from Japan by his mother to the progressive, private Interlaken Boarding School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. This had been true, but that School was suddenly closed (in a rush by the US Army with the unrealized intent to be converted into a WW I training facility; but the War ended before it could be established) at just about the time of his lonely transcontinental arrival. Befriended then by its progressive educator and former owner, Dr. Rumely, the 13 year-old boy was placed with the local Dr. Mack family in nearby LaPorte. The rest is history, but not fully told. "Mark Twain" where are you when we need telling such an improbable tale?

Noguchi's formidable Indiana experiences as a typical teenager in the typical small, Midwestern town becomes an explosive note in American Arts history. "I am a Hoosier too" Noguchi said. --Glenn Ralston