“The reason why I know the Blue Dog is important today, really, is because it relates to so many kids. If you relate something to the children, then you know you’re on something that’s sincere, that’s truth, that’s truth that’ll never die.”
—- George Rodrigue
Source Figure, by Robert Graham, and We Stand Together, by George Rodrigue
The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans Museum of Art
While I was riding my commuter bike around downtown Dallas, I stumbled across this piece of welded iron sculpture in back of the office building at 2001 Bryan Street.
I looked around and couldn’t find any type of plaque or label or anything. I have no idea what the sculpture is or who did it or who put it out there in back of that skyscraper.
Still, whatever, I like the thing and am glad I found it. It sort of feels like my own personal secret sculpture, in the middle of the big city.
The Mystery Sculpture, welded iron.
The sculpture, with the Eye of Sauron in the background.
My commuter bicycle, leaning up against the mystery sculpture.
A sculpture garden is a wonderful place… a well-done sculpture garden on a nice day is the best of all possible places – one where the blue sky, crystal humming air, and moving spectators become part of the exhibit and integral to the pure joy of hanging out in such a spot.
A woman sits barefoot, shoes and drink nearby with her backpack not far away, and quietly studies her notebooks in the sun. How is she not as exquisite a work of art as the famous bronzes? The curve of her back, the spherical bun of hair on top of her head, and the sun gleaming from her ankles and toes – these are the simple pleasures the great artists strive for lifetimes to come close to duplicating and have to settle for a second-rate imitation, the best they can do.
The granite chair behind her is Settee, by Scott Burton. His works blur the distinction between furniture and sculpture. I’ve always enjoyed his piece at the Nasher, here in Dallas, Schist Furniture Group (Settee with Two Chairs). I’m never really comfortable sitting on his work – it seems wrong to wear the art like that, even though that’s exactly what he intended.
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
—-Joseph Addison
When a finished work of 20th century sculpture is placed in an 18th century garden, it is absorbed by the ideal representation of the past, thus reinforcing political and social values that are no longer with us.
—-Robert Smithson
Sculpture is the art of the hole and the lump.
—-Auguste Rodin
Sculpture occupies real space like we do… you walk around it and relate to it almost as another person or another object.
—-Chuck Close
There is no substitute for feeling the stone, the metal, the plaster, or the wood in the hand; to feel its weight; to feel its texture; to struggle with it in the world rather than in the mind alone.
—-William M. Dupree
I rely on those below me to reach this height, and support so many others above, yet we are all blinded by our duties to the beauty around us. Trapped by the darkness of our burden. All we feel is the terrible weight.
Fair Park is one of the underutilized gems in Dallas. Other than the few weeks of the Texas State Fair – the art deco wonderland goes neglected – shunned by most folks. I love to ride my bike down there and hang out – looking at the art. One of my favorite (among many) works is the sculpture Spirit of the Centennial, in front of the Woman’s Museum.
Spirit of the Centennial Sculpture was designed by Raoul Josett and Jose Martin to sit in front of the Hall of Administration building (now the Women’s Museum). Carlo Ciampaglia designed the mural that serves as a backdrop to the sculpture, also titled Spirit of the Centennial. The woman featured in the sculpture has been a source of controversy with two different women claiming to have been the model. There is dispute over whether the model was Marry Ellen Bensterdt, a Duchess and 1930’s model, or the wife of K. Keiser, a big band leader during that era. Raoul Josett and Jose Martin also designed the Fish Fountain Sculpture, depicting flying fish swimming over a reflecting pond, which sits in front of the building. Stashka Star recreated renovated the Spirit of the Centennial mural and sculpture in 1998 and John Dennis recreated the Fish Fountain Sculpture in 2000.
Fabricated silicon bronze, three sculptures approx. 15h x 5 x 5 each for the Cedars Light Rail Station, Dallas Area Rapid Transit authority, Dallas, Texas. Commission awarded through a national competition sponsored by DART. The sculptures relate not only in form to the landscape design but are also intended to recall the evolution of the neighborhood from a cedar forest, to an elegant Victorian neighborhood, to a now light industrial district.
Bill Chance 