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THE JOY OF ART #22, “Stoical Ruins”, 2020 - 2022.

 

In this "Joy of Art” letter I want to pay tribute to all the men, women, and children 

in Ukraine today. May they soon again share the joys of life.  

 

A few days before the end of WW2 my family made it to Hamburg, Germany, fleeing the Russian army. From our apartment I looked at blocks of gutted buildings - upright, stoical ruins. 

 

The sculptures “Stoical Ruins”, 2020 - 2022,  evolved from the quiet decay and inherent melancholy of ruins found in cultures throughout history, such as cities abandoned by the Mayans, the decaying structures photographed by Bernd & Hilla Becher, or Western ghost towns once teeming with life.

 

My sculptures are inspired by the house as body & vessel; they are created in the spirit of Bauhaus economy. Monumentality is integral to most of my sculptures irrespective of actual size.

 

“Stoical Ruins” is a series of 6 oxidized steel sculptures. Rust makes Time visible.

 

"My wish is that you travel by perception the road which I travelled in creating it". David Smith