Ursula von Rydingsvard On an Epic Scale

Ursula von Rydingsvard
On an Epic Scale
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Ursula von Rydingsvard: On an Epic Scale
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Ursula von Rydingsvard
On an Epic Scale
Curated by Dede Young
With an essay by Patricia C. Phillips
Neuberger Museum of Art
Purchase College, State University of New York
Published on the occasion of the exhibition:
Ursula von Rydingsvard: On an Epic Scale
Foreword and Acknowledgments
Neuberger Museum of Art
Purchase College, State University of New York
January 27 - May 5, 2002
The Neuberger Museum of Art is most pleased to present this exhibition
of the extraordinary work of Ursula von Rydingsvard, who is interna-
photographed the work for the catalogue, and to Marc and Cindy Zaref
tionally known for her grand-scale sculpture, assembled from cedar
for their design of the publication. As with all exhibitions mounted by
beams that are laminated, carved and often surfaced with graphite
the Neuberger, the entire staff played a role in bringing this exhibition,
to enrich their color. Curated in conjunction with the artist by the
its educational and public programs to fruition. In particular, appreciation
Museum’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Dede Young, the
is extended to Registrar Patricia Magnani, and Assistant Curator
exhibition consists of “wall drawings” and vessel forms that are free
Jacqueline Shilkoff for all of their time and energy.
standing and wall mounted. The “drawings” are in fact large-scale
carved relief sculpture, which while massive and extremely expressive
programs has been provided by the Friends of the Neuberger Museum
in nature, also appear from a distance as elegant as line drawings. The
of Art, the Westchester Arts Council with funds from the County of
bowl forms, upon which the artist has established her reputation, are
Westchester, and private donations. We are most grateful to our
gigantic in scale, expressive in style, yet as vessels suggest all that
funders for their support.
Exhibition and Publication made possible, in part, from the Westchester Arts
Council with funds from the Westchester County Government, the Friends of the
Neuberger Museum of Art and individual donations. All works courtesy of the
artist and Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
General Editor: Lucinda H. Gedeon, Ph.D.
Copy Editor: Ellen R. Feldman
Design: Marc Zaref Design, Inc.
Photography: David Allison
Printing: The Studley Press
© Neuberger Museum of Art
Purchase College, State University of New York
735 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, New York 10577-1400
www.neuberger.org
Funding for the exhibition, its catalogue and educational
is inherent in a traditional bowl. Von Rydingsvard’s bowls, however,
evoke a mysterious quality, especially in those wherein the interior
spaces are not readily seen.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by an means, electronic or mechanical, including photography,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without permission
in writing from the publisher.
In addition our gratitude is extended to David Allison, who
Lucinda H. Gedeon, Ph.D.
Director
I would like to thank Dede for her efforts in curating the exhibi-
tion and for her interview with the artist that is contained within these
pages. I am also most grateful to Professor Patricia Phillips of the
State University of New York at New Paltz, for her insightful catalogue
essay. The exhibition would not have been possible without the full
support of the artist, to whom we owe our heartfelt appreciation. We
are grateful to Ursula, not only for the opportunity to present her work,
but for all of her personal efforts and that of her assistants Bart Karski,
Cover: (detail) Can't Eat Black, 2001-02
Frontispiece: Ursula von Rydingsvard on scaffolding surrounding
River Bowl, 2001 in her Accord, NY studio. Photo: Will Falier
head of the studio, Tom Carruthers, Dan O’Neill, and Andrew Hughes
for the exhibition’s physical installation. We also want to thank Mary
Sabbatino of the Galerie LeLong, New York, NY under whose auspices
the work has been lent to the exhibition.
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Ursula von Rydingsvard: On an Epic Scale
govern the appearance of the built environment. The beams commonly are used to frame structures, build retaining walls, and
delineate raised gardens. Over time it has become clear that von Rydingsvard utilizes this commonplace material with something
A pattern of recursive, yet distinctive characteristics offers different paths to the work of Ursula von Rydingsvard. One could
else in mind.
discuss the extended family of forms, many inspired by common tools, objects, places, and memories that the artist continues to
revisit and refine. The generous scope of scale, ranging from delicate, diminutive objects to immense forms that share an affinity
conifers; they hold their foliage throughout the year. White cedars grow in marshes and peaty swamps. In contrast, red cedars
with architecture and landscape, could be highlighted. And there is the dialectical relationship of form and surface—the presence
often grow on dry, barren hillsides as well as on the edges of lakes and streams. The trees typically are slender and statuesque.
of timeless, archetypal forms (vessels, bowls, columns) that are deeply, even obsessively articulated and transformed by searing
They branch horizontally and their foliage is a delicate and feathery gray-green. In younger trees, the wood is a tawny red. As the
cuts, intricate incisions, drawn lines, and subtle coloration.
wood ages, it loses its warm color and acquires a silver luminosity. The abundant oil in the wood emanates a strong, persistent
Without overlooking or diminishing these significant dimensions of the work, another revealing way to introduce the
fragrance. In the past, the charcoal of cedar was used to make gunpowder. It still is used to make pencils. Von Rydingsvard has
sculpture would be to speculate about the artist’s selection and manipulation of materials. Like many artists, von Rydingsvard has
brought another kind of application—and notoriety—to this material. Exploiting its light, close-grained, and supple qualities, she
taken excursions into different material applications, but, for more than twenty years, she has worked faithfully and boldly with
uses it to make beautiful, brooding non-functional forms. She makes distinctive, often disquieting art with cedar.
milled beams of cedar. The cedar units are the marks—
the strokes and signature—of her work. The wood
place. This paradoxical fascination is represented in von Rydingsvard’s long commitment and deep attraction to cedar beams.
arrives in large bundles in her studios in Brooklyn and
Common forms used again and again for more than two decades continue to present fresh opportunities to exhume the many
upstate New York. The beams, trimmed to the 4”x 4”
mysteries that inhabit and animate the ordinary. No matter how unremarkable the cedar lengths might appear to the eye, there is
conventions of the construction industry, are one of
an evocative, aromatic dimension. The fragrance of cedar, which dispels household moths and attracts people, is sweetly pungent.
the most generic and ubiquitous forms that shape and
The insistent smell feels palpable; it can, in fact, be punishing. After many years spent with this colorful, durable, and fragrant
There are different kinds of cedar trees, most of which grow in the temperate regions of North America. Cedars are
There are countless examples of mining the unusual and extraordinary in the predictable contours of the common-
Artist drawing on cedar beams for Lace Collars, Brooklyn studio.
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Lamination of Lace Collars, Brooklyn Studio.
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wood, von Rydingsvard now works in an industrial respirator. The oil from cedar that produces the unique, penetrating smell can
This is the active space of collaboration where von
have long-term, corrosive effects on the human respiratory system. The material’s mix of attributes and effects hint at the multiple
Rydingsvard works with long-time assistant Bart Karski
dimensions of von Rydingsvard’s work. It is not simply what meets the eye.
and other artist assistants to plan, plot, calculate, cut,
In the past, the physical senses of smell, taste, and touch were thought to be isolated phenomena. Presumably, sen-
construct, and assemble the cedar beams into intelligible
sory information followed separate paths to different parts of the human brain that served as isolated centers of response. Current
and imaginative forms. Von Rydingsvard is the creative
research and new findings indicate that the physical senses are not discrete and independent. While a particular cerebral location
director of a distinctive aesthetic language of intimate
may trigger the perception of touch, for example, there is growing evidence that the physical senses are intricately connected and
and protean fluency, but the assistants shape, suggest, slice, and adjust the elements with a thoughtful, critical understanding
routinely influence each other. Von Rydingsvard’s aesthetic vision is intuitively multi-sensory. The work actively, metaphorically,
of the artist’s intent. The choreography of moving, cutting, stacking, and adjusting large masses of cedar is dramatic; the noise
and imaginatively engages and integrates a number of physical senses. The distinctive smell of cedar, although it fades as the
of saws and tools is resounding. Even when the work is quiet—gluing, clamping, and laminating the different elements, for
wood ages, never entirely disappears. The tawny reds of fresh cedar pale to a shimmering incandescence. The thought of touch
example—the surrounding evidence confirms the strenuous labor and collective physical force required to create these dense,
connects with other sensations. Like the web of scored lines on the surface of her sculpture, the dynamic interplay of imagination,
efflorescent forms.
imminence, direct sensation, and deep memory form an intricate map of meaning.
Speculation on the meaning of materials offers other insights into the artist’s creative process. In von Rydingsvard’s
floor at one end are large transparent vacuum-formed shapes, remnants from a major installation that von Rydingsvard is com-
Brooklyn studio, materials are judiciously categorized, representing and affecting both process and scale. The largest space of the
pleting for a new family court building in Queens, New York. This space also is filled with stunning accumulation and signs of
artist’s studio is dedicated to the building of legendary cedar sculptures that seem to emerge from the architecture, rising from the
endless activity, but it feels warmly illuminated, arranged, quietly intense—domestic. There are neatly organized worktables
floor or leaning on or hanging from the walls. This is a labyrinthine space. In some respects, the creative process itself is like an in-
covered with small projects and speculative studies. Different materials, both natural forms and found objects, are organized in
tricate maze. The large cedar forms in various stages of development expand and wander, leaving only narrow, circuitous passages.
bowls or orderly configurations on work surfaces. On the walls are objects, drawings, photographs, images, and materials that
Through a narrow, dim corridor is another workspace with a vividly contrasting, hushed atmosphere. Stacked on the
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Brooklyn Studio with Can’t Eat Black in foreground.
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von Rydingsvard has collected or produced. These are
memories, associations, and new ideas not fully formed. But as well as we think we know this work, the common taxonomy of
the research materials and inspirational data of a vital,
materials and forms is inherently eccentric. The future is incalculable.
affective creative practice. This is a space of personal
introspection rather than convivial collaboration—a
same way that the conjoined rooms of the artist’s studio accommodate the unfolding reverberations of process, memories, and
small world, where most things can be held in the
ideas. The assembled work in Ursula von Rydingsvard: On an Epic Scale paradoxically exploits the idea of an epic scale to disclose
hand. Whether singular or serial, simple or complex,
and explore a personal rhetoric of line and detail that connects a deeply felt experience with the contemporary world. Generally
the assembled materials require attentive, concentrated focus. They constitute the cellular or molecular components of von
using archetypal forms, the agitated texture of marks that the artist makes throughout the assembly process challenges and ex-
Rydingsvard’s practice.
tenuates the authority of a common language. It is not unusual to first experience the embracing shape and enfolding scale of von
Speculative drawings and sketches. Objects picked up and placed in a pocket during a walk in the woods or in
Rydingsvard’s sculptures, but it is in the infinitesimal, intricate, and intimate marks made on the wood that the syntactical structure
the commercial and industrial neighborhoods of Williamsburg. It is easy to see—and feel—why von Rydingsvard is drawn to
of meaning is rendered. The relationship of aggressive cuts and sensitive lines makes these massive forms vulnerable and contin-
these materials and forms. The drawings and studies, objects and artifacts share errant characteristics that unquestionably, if
gent. In this web of lines—this transit of ideas—that both organizes and softens the stability of each piece, the personal vision
indirectly, inform the larger site of industry and production next door. But the attributes and affinities of particular materials and
and deep memories of the artist connect to the ocular and temporal world of the twenty-first century.
objects do not reveal themselves in an explicit manner. Cause and effect remains a mysterious, mazy dynamic.
The dialogue of these two environments is an apt metaphor for the work. The spaces hold compelling evidence of
ceiling is high; the materials feel taciturn and unyielding. It is has been my experience that the space generally does not serve as a
von Rydingsvard’s agile, inventive use of drawing, materials, and shifting scales to anneal memory with imagination. Watching the
gracious, accommodating host to small work. Most of the work in On an Epic Scale was created for this space. The substantial forms
artist move between these rooms or thinking of the long days and many years spent in the studio, a palpable image of creative vigil
of von Rydingsvard’s sculpture accept its size and scale with remarkable confidence and grace; the densely drawn character of the
crystallizes. Gathered here—in the density and ephemerality of materials that von Rydingsvard uses—is the syntax for stories,
surfaces introduces a more active, cellular scale. The epic poem and story richly convey the palpable tension of grand narratives and
The work is shaped by drawing, but it is never simply applied to the surface. It is dynamically integrated, in much the
The Theatre Gallery of the Philip Johnson/John Burgee-designed Neuberger Museum of Art is a formidable space. The
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Krasawica II
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Lace Collars
personal stories. Von Rydingsvard’s work dramatically articulates and contrasts these multiple scales.
Two enormous bowl-like forms sit in the space surrounded by three pieces placed on or against the walls of the
gallery. The freestanding forms exploit both the vertical and horizontal volumes of the space. The pieces on the wall offer an
illuminating context and literally surround and enfold viewers in an embodied experience of the work. Krasawica II (1998-2001)
represents the artist’s preoccupation with the symbolic and functional significance of vessels, as well as ideas of seriality.
Backed up to the wall, five scooped-out shapes form a procession that extends for more than twenty feet. The thick, layered
vessels, each awkwardly pirouetting on a small pointed base, are joined by a stabilizing spine. The tawny, textured exterior
surfaces contrast with hollow, secret interiors.
Krasawica II’s serial forms register a calculated, unrelenting tension in von Rydingsvard’s work. Often deploying the
generalized conventions of formal or architectural typologies, she literally begins to draw into, cut away, and shred apart this reliable evidence. Common, well-worn forms are concurrently eroded and activated by agitated surfaces that have been sliced and
fractured by the whirling, vibrating blades of circular and chain saws, chisels, and other instruments. The work draws us into a
world of familiar, evocative shapes often to produce disquieting effects. In von Rydingsvard’s world, the experience of beauty is
stunningly complicated. Drawing is constructive and destructive. Sculpture is lightness and darkness.
Across the space another procession of forms winds its way along a wall of the gallery. Unlike the awkwardly bulky,
gravity-bound forms of Krasawica II, Lace Collars (2001-2002) is suspended on the wall. Although the forms are exaggerated well
beyond the scale of the body, they are hung at the height of a viewer’s head. A number of associations or connections are held
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in suspension. With its raw, lacy texture, it could be an enormous collar. The seven forms also look like sections of vessels or cups,
but the logic is purposefully puzzling. Have these forms been created by slicing vessels to reveal their interior spaces, much like a
sectional drawing in architecture, or are these forms perpetually temporized and incomplete? Clearly, the relationship of interior and
exterior space is intriguingly ambiguous and adrift. The reliability of particular forms is undermined by the vagaries of process. We
may know more, see more, and possess more information about these forms, but also feel less confident with speculations on meaning. Von Rydingsvard’s work confirms that the enigmatic inhabits spaces that are withheld, as well as those that are unconcealed.
In many ways, these two wall pieces suggest some of the germane clues and imminent changes in von Rydingsvard’s
work. They concurrently inform and anticipate the formidable aesthetic dimensions of the remarkable cedar bowls. Simply the
size of River Bowl (2001) would overwhelm most interior spaces. More than ten feet in diameter, the vessel is a fifteen-foot-tall
massive column. In some respects, viewers’ must trust the prototypal identification. The enormous bowl looms over viewers; the
interior space is only imaginatively accessible. And if it is a towering bowl (and why would we think that it is not?), the thought
of the dark, inner cavity is foreboding. The traditional functional, comforting, and nurturing qualities of the vessel acquire a more
sinister character at this shocking scale.
The silhouette of the immense vessel is calculatedly simple, but the surface of the River Bowl can be seen as a riot of
visual (and visceral) activity. Von Rydingsvard’s sculptures are always, in some respects, about drawing. Irregularly scored, incised,
and often highlighted by graphite and chalk, the eye and mind constantly wander between the scales of landscape, architecture,
the body, and the hand.
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detail: Lace Collars
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River Bowl
When von Rydingsvard first began to use cedar beams, she often would meticulously laminate pieces together, cut
and chisel them into undulating forms, and sand surfaces to quiet evidence of the material’s mundane uniformity. Over time, her
methodology has become more transparent and speculative. The units of cedar are undisguised; the idea of drawing is more
uncommon. The work is singular and plural. On the prodigious elevation of the sculpture, the ends of the 4” x 4” cedar beams
form a uniform grid of modules. In contrast to its traditional, intelligible form, the surface of River Bowl looks like an active
screen of pixels. Exhumed by the artist, the elements all have a distinctive character. Seen as an ensemble, the independent marks
recede and a more cohesive, comprehensible—and often very different—disposition congeals. The perception of pixels evokes
an intriguing dissonance with the artist’s arduous, legendary handwork. It is the drawn quality—the use of lines and incisions
simultaneously exaggerate and eviscerate form—that creates a temporal, inconsonant tension in the work. The sculpture seems
simultaneously impermeable and immaterial.
Von Rydingsvard’s other bowl for this space is a vast crater or natural amphitheater. Can’t Eat Black (2001-2002) is
balanced slightly askew. More than eighteen feet wide, the piece invites viewers to circle it so that the sweeping dimensions can
be seen from multiple angles and perspectives. Unlike the elusive, dark core of River Bowl, the interior of this vessel is effaced.
The far-flung surface catches light. Its incandescence almost obscures the exterior walls, which turn and slope precipitously
towards the floor.
In addition to this effacement of interior space, there is a significant change in the production process. For many
years, von Rydingsvard has applied lengths of cedar like strokes or marks in a drawing to create deeply textured spaces. If not
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as exacting and predictable as bricklaying, a certain sequence and logic of assembly could be followed throughout the development of the piece. Generally, sculptures begin on the floor or the wall based on a rough schematic plan. Form grows in
layers. Earlier choices influence imminent decisions. The aesthetic vision is neither predetermined nor single-minded; coherence emerges in a conceptual process of accretion. In this vast, topological basin, seismic events have cracked open and torn
through the walls. Preserving a recognizable configuration, the sculpture has been severed into sections. Some areas appear
to have melded or mended, but there remain fresh crevices, awkward alignments, and startling ruptures discernible on the
exterior walls and riddled surface of the interior volume.
For recent public commissions, von Rydingsvard has created works in bronze and vacuum-formed plastic. The
sculptures first are made in cedar and then are cut into sections so that molds can be produced. This process of construction,
disassembly, and re-creation has suggested new thresholds and metaphors for the work. Materials are assembled and excised.
Elements are built up and aggressively scraped away. And now, entire forms are created, pulled apart, and reassembled to
show the wrenching, cyclical process of creation, destruction, splicing, and cloning to create new hybrid forms. Von Rydingsvard has infused variables to cause a crisis or upheaval of process. Perhaps inherent but formerly implicit in earlier work, there
is a trenchant dissonance in this new sculpture.
Like the objects and materials collected in her quiet studio, drawing inevitably, if indirectly, shapes and informs the
large sculpture. Often poetic and analytical inquiries, the drawings’ searching and calculated marks describe and presage a creative process. In her sculpture, cedar beams are applied one by one to create a thickening skein of forms. With tools, instruments,
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detail: River Bowl
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Can’t Eat Black
and her hands, von Rydingsvard inscribes
other layers of lines that create sinewy passages as well as deep spaces. This syntax
of marks at multiple scales and in different materials give her work its epic—both
timeless and timely—dimension.
If not consciously created to
make the role of drawing more explicit in her work, the fifth work in this exhibition also represents her growing acknowledgment
of vulnerability, imperfectability, change, and chance. For this large work, the painstaking activities of cutting, assembling, gluing,
clamping, and laminating that enable her to stack multiple elements into enormous, fixed forms have been suspended or set aside.
Like pickets in a fence, cedar beams have been leaned against the wall side by side. This great expanse is a world of countless
inconsistencies. The lengths of cedar lean at slightly different angles; we see the imperfections of machined lumber. They are not
glued and precisely laminated; cracks and spaces between the elements create a variable pattern. Across the surface of the wood,
two general undulating outlines, like rolling mountains or the repeating patterns of a routine electrocardiogram, contain intersecting patterns of scored lines scoured by chalk and graphite. Some of the lines form an organizing matrix of intersecting diagonals.
Others are more errant and fitful. Above and in contrast to all this activity, a silent sweep of cedar reaches toward the ceiling.
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mama, build me a fence
Not a simple flattening of forms, mama, build me a fence (2001-2002) is a projection that both expands and concen-
trates a vision of form and space. In this vast circuitry of incised and drawn lines, a diagram or plan of the artist’s conceptual
development emerges. Well known for the visceral density of her cedar sculptures, this prodigious hybrid form represents both the
familiar and ineffable qualities of von Rydingsvard’s vision. Cedar beams—her proverbial material—are exposed and undisguised.
The multiplicity of marks and lines suggest a deepening of language. Like the fissures in Can’t Eat Black, the
gaps and irregularities between the wood beams present new aesthetic opportunities. These subtle, yet significant spaces are
metaphors of resilience and agents of change. The methods and materials seem familiar, but like the filigree of chalk lines that
wanders the surface of mama, build me a fence, there is frost in the cracks.
Patricia C. Phillips
December 2001
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Interview with Ursula von Rydingsvard
December 2001
UvR: For me the turning point came through mama your legs (2000).
Interviewer: Dede Young, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art,
When I made that piece, I realized that the product was not the holy
Neuberger Museum of Art
end—the thing that one genuflects to. How engaging the process
is is critical. I have always loved and been extremely involved in the
process. I have never had anything fabricated in my life, until the
DY: What, if any, significant changes do see in this new work?
Queens Family Courthouse commission, when I had to have components vacuum-formed. But we did build the forms to be vacuum-
UvR: I think that there is a change. There is an excitement that I feel.
formed in my studio. I’ve never designed my sculpture to be built by
I want very much to ask questions that are more interesting to me—
any fabricating place or anyone but me and my studio assistants. So,
that I am more compelled by—but I am not sure that I could say that
again, I think that to leave the indications of the process in a loud, and
these questions can be verbalized easily. These are issues that can
clear, and energetic, and vibrant way is such an important part of the
only be dealt with in a way that is visual.
end result.
DY: What do you see, or have you seen recently, in the world that you
DY: It was right after 9/11 when I first saw the large wall drawing
relate to in your work?
in your studio. I wonder if this new work was a response to all the
visual images we saw on TV and in all the press, which showed the
UvR: Recently I saw the Giacometti show at the Museum of Modern
landscape completely changed for us here in New York?
Art. He demonstrates that the process itself is as important as the
product. He said that the process might even be the most important
UvR: I think that is astute of you, and I will say with great reticence
thing. The process is recording the doubt, the groping, the uncer-
and great shyness that it might, in fact, have influenced the work and
tainty, the celebrations, the images; the images never really stand
the title I chose for it, which is mama, build me a fence. Everything
still. When you look at Giacometti’s sculptures, you can’t really look
takes a long time to gel in one’s head, and that gelling is a process of
at them directly. There is a way in which they dance—dance and
weaving together all kinds of other experiences that then affect one’s
become more understandable through peripheral vision. That there
thinking. But I would have to say that since it was the first piece that I
are indications of how alive the process was in the product is, for me,
worked on after 9/11, there was and probably is a relationship.
extremely important.
DY: This brings me to ask about the landscape reference in your work,
DY: Would you talk about your process?
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detail: mama, build me a fence
which ranges from fabulous cliffs to ocean floors, but there is also
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such a visceral quality of the body. Even though wood is not a material
xDY: What about the idea of lace—Lace Collars—made in wood,
bowl—the new bowl—Can’t Eat Black. The way this bowl both
think of dozens of images a day, but what really counts is to realize
so naturally associated with the human body, the relationship between
which is a hard material?
comes together with such incredible, graceful force and yet cleaves
them. Then you have to test those images to see if indeed they bear
apart and has scars is so spectacular. How did you achieve all that
the fruit your brain thought they were going to bear.
inside and outside in your work seems to relate to the body. I am curious
if the belly of a bowl represents the belly of the earth, the belly of a
UvR: Why am I now thinking about lace and wood? In fact, I’m thinking
woman, or if the references are more universal, philosophically broader?
of taking this lace and multiplying it into many times the scale of the
with so much mass?
DY: The work has so much mystery. I feel it can’t reveal itself all
lace that I’ve been working with for these Lace Collars and putting it
UvR: I think that being big does not delete having vulnerabilities.
at once. For me it happens over time, with the experience of being
UvR: I think you’re saying it. When I make an object like a bowl, it’s
in a landscape. I’m thinking of combining this kind of lacy movement,
You said that very well.
around the work. I am interested in watching people looking at the
an excuse to talk about the very things you said—it’s an excuse to
this organic movement, almost like whirlpools, but not predictable
talk about the very primitive, the very visceral, the very kind of carnal
whirlpools—like whirlpools that have been crocheted—with a linear
DY: Is there a difference between making your sculpture and thinking
feelings that I have in connection with the body, with the landscape,
movement based on drawing or writing. There is a man from Turkey
in terms of an installation or an exhibition?
or maybe even in connection with architectural structures that are also
for whom I’m going to be making an outdoor piece, in Antibes, and I’m
very primitive and vernacular.
asking for an example of handwriting from him in Turkish. I am thinking
UvR: I think of all of these pieces that will be in the exhibition as
I make sure that the work is put in the context required and then
of combining the form of lace with interesting forms of cursive writing
belonging to one another, but I don’t think of this exhibition as being
run. It’s often very difficult for me to be near or next to the work and
DY: To my mind the body references cross over to include adornment
to see what happens—on a really huge scale. The lace that I have in
an installation. Each sculpture is an independent work.
talk about it, though I’ve done that. I feel as though I’ve gone to a
of the body, such as in Lace Collars, which is so ladylike and Victorian,
my Lace Collars I liked making so much. I’m trying to be as delicate and
but obviously it goes further than that. The words chosen for your titles
as wispy and almost as nonexistent as lace, to be almost transparent.
DY: We have talked while standing in the gallery space, and I have
at the work. These pieces contain my deepest feelings, and the last
sometimes are descriptive, like Lace Collars, but other times are more
I liked making cedar into something that has weight, a carved sliced
wondered, what is your process of preparing for an exhibition, and
thing I want to do is to be put in any kind of position of explaining or
mysterious, like Krasawica.
texture, and a pinkish tone. It’s almost like a slab, a cut slab, which
in what way does the site have an impact on you?
defending what it is that I put in them. I think that often people go
work to see the power it has to change perception. Do you spend
time watching people look at your work?
UvR: That’s not an easy thing for me to do. I make the work and run.
confessional and I have confessed to whomever comes in to look
I can then inlay into the thick cedar collar to make it more concrete,
to exhibitions thinking there is a key sentence or two that can give
UvR: Krasawica is one of the most voluptuous pieces that I’ve ever
more real, more in keeping with my notion of lace. The lace isn’t so
UvR: You were there when I made the decision to multiply the Lace
made. If I were to recall an image that started me thinking about those
iffy anymore. There is a part of me that always wants to be so light,
Collar. I saw the wall, and it seemed like a very evident thing then as
structures, it would be an action that would be akin to taking your lip
so nonexistent, so, so fragile, and I try to get there. But it is hard, it is
to how this last number of elements could come into play in relation-
DY: The deeply personal part of this work that you do reveal is so
and stretching it outward with your finger. You have a stable back,
difficult. I seem to need to have something concrete to resist in order
ship to everything else. This isn’t always the case, but sometimes as
gracious and generous. Every form is so giving. It is such a surprise
namely, your head and your jaw, and you have an organic piece of
for me to go on building.
I go on with the layers in building my sculpture it becomes more clear
to see those qualities in the materials that you use because they are
as to what that sculpture needs. As I go on with the layers, too, I also
tough materials. I know it has been written about before—how you
flesh that you can draw out away from it. But the back is not going to
them an “in” to the work. There is just no such thing.
change—the only part that is flexible is the lip itself. It’s almost what
DY: What you’re talking about has a rich history of feminism, of female-
realize that, oftentimes, I need to let go of whatever idea it is that
came to use wood and the kind of wood you use—but can you just
you do to your pocket, too, when you pull it out. There is just one part
ness. When you try to bring lace to a new presence, you enter a space
I had for that sculpture because the reality of what’s happening is
make a comment about your consistent love of this one particular
that can come out—the other stays as a wall that keeps it in place.
between what is present and what is absent, what is permanent and
taking it somewhere else. You can think of images infinitely, you can
material, cedar, with which you are so passionately involved?
ephemeral. These qualities are also achieved in the large undulating
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UvR: I guess it has served me well. I have all my wood milled into
surrounded with wood—wooden homes, wooden fences, domestic
the exact measures of a 4” x 4” cedar beam. They have to be exact,
implements, wooden tools to farm the land. When you enter any of
because in our gluing together the layers upon layers to build a piece,
those houses you’ll see right outside a huge stack of firewood, usually
they have to be done in a way that a 2 x 4 can actually be put on top
quite beautifully stacked, with smoothly cut ends. There is, I guess, a
of it and it could all squeeze at an equal pressure. I want my work to
feeling of familiarity, a feeling of comfort and grace. And at the same
last; I want it to be strong, so we use very good glues. We use a high-
time, because of the familiarity, I can really push it around.
quality cedar, which means the growth rings are very close together. It
does really well outdoors. But my love for wood is part of my history.
DY: Thank you.
I come from a long line of Polish peasant farmers, and they were
Selected Biography
1942
Birth on July 26 in Deensen, Germany
1962-65
B.A. and M.A. from University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
1975
Fulbright-Hays Grant for travel to Poland
Group exhibition at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Group exhibition the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral
Gables, FL
M.F.A. from Columbia University, New York, NY
1976
Group exhibition Contemporary Reflections, The Aldrich Museum of
Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
1977
Group exhibition Wood, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, NY
Solo exhibition 55 Mercer, New York, NY
1978
Group exhibition Indoor-Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, P.S. 1
Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY
New York State Council on the Arts Grant
Solo exhibition Robert Freidus Gallery, New York, NY
1978-79
Group exhibition OIA Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Wards Island, NY
1979
Group exhibition Twin Tower I, New York City, Newhouse Gallery, Snug
Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY
National Endowment for the Arts Grant
Solo exhibition 55 Mercer, New York, NY
1979-80
Group exhibition NY/8, Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery, Syracuse
University, NY
1980
Creative Artists Program Service Grant
Group exhibition Nineteen at Twenty Six, Cultural Council Foundation at
26 Federal Plaza, New York, NY
Group exhibition Site Sights: Outdoor Sculpture at Pratt, Pratt Institute,
Brooklyn, NY
Solo exhibition 55 Mercer, New York, NY
1981
Group exhibition 55 Mercer: 10 Sculptors, University Art Gallery, Staller
Center for the Arts, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Solo exhibition Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
1982
Solo exhibition Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
1983
Group exhibition 55 Mercer/12 Years, 55 Mercer, New York, NY
Guggenheim Fellowship
1984
Group exhibition Transformation of the Minimal Style, Sculpture Center,
New York, NY
Group exhibition The Ways of Wood, Godwin-Ternbach Museum,
Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing
Mark di Suvero Athena Foundation Grant
Solo exhibition Bette Staler Gallery, New York, NY
1985
Griswald Travel Grant from Yale University
Group exhibition Judith Murray and Ursula von Rydingsvard, Hillwood
Art Museum, Long Island University, C.W. Post, Brookville, NY
Group exhibition Selections from the Collection, The Aldrich Museum of
Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
Solo exhibition Studio Bassanese, Trieste, Italy
Artist among elements of Can’t Eat Black, Brooklyn studio. Photo: Enrico Ferorelli
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1986-87
National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artists Grant
1990-92
Group exhibition Outdoor Sculpture, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1987
Group exhibition Sculpture of the Eighties: Aycock, Ferrara, Frank, Lasch,
Miss, Pfaff, Saar, Sperry, von Rydingsvard, Zucker, Queens Museum
of Art, Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, Queens, NY
Group exhibition Standing Ground, The Contemporary Arts Center,
Cincinnati, OH
1991
Group exhibition Five Central European Artists, Cultural Center,
Chicago, IL
Group exhibition The Hybrid State, Exit Art/The First World, New York, NY
Group exhibition Jestesmy, Zacheta Gallery, Central Bureau for Art
Exhibitions, Warsaw, Poland; traveled to Krakow, Poland
Maryland Institute College of Art Honorary Doctorate
Solo exhibition Lorence Monk Gallery, New York, NY
1988
Solo exhibition Exit Art/The First World, New York, NY
Solo exhibition Laumeier Sculpture Park and Museum, Saint Louis, MO
1989
Group exhibition Encore: Celebrating Fifty Years, The Contemporary Arts
Center, Cincinnati, OH
Group exhibition Totem, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Solo exhibition Cranbook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Ml
1989-90
Group exhibition 100 Drawings by Women, Hillwood Art Museum,
Long Island University, C.W. Post, Brookville, NY; traveled to
Blum-Helnnan, New York, NY
1989-94
Group exhibition New Acquisitions, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
Group exhibition Recent Acquisitions, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, NY
1990
Group exhibition Out of Wood, Whitney Museum of American Art at
Phillip Morris, New York, NY
Solo exhibition Capp Street Project, San Francisco, CA
Solo exhibition The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Solo exhibition Lorence Monk Gallery, New York, NY
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1992
Group exhibition Zygmunt, a Collaboration by Judy Pfaff and Ursula von
Rydingsvard, The Cultural Space, New York, NY
Solo exhibition Zamek Ujazdowski - Contemporary Art Center, Warsaw,
Poland
1992-94
Solo exhibition Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY
1993
Group exhibition Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of
North Carolina at Greensboro
Group exhibition The Second Dimension: Twentieth Century Sculptors;
Drawings from the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
Group exhibition at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
1994
Group exhibition The American Academy Invitational Exhibition of
Painting and Sculpture, The American Academy of Arts and Letters,
New York, NY
Group exhibition Beyond Nature: Wood into Art, Lowe Art Museum,
University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
Solo exhibition Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
Solo exhibition Metro Tech Plaza, Brooklyn, NY
1994-95
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Art
Group exhibition Landscape as Metaphor, The Columbus Museum of
Art, OH; traveled to Denver Art Museum, CO
1998-99
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture, Madison Art Center,
Wl; traveled to Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH;
Chicago Cultural Center, IL, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
1995
Group exhibition Body as Metaphor, Center for Curatorial Studies
Museum, Bard College, Annandale on the Hudson, NY
Group exhibition Crossing State Lines: 20th Century Art from Private
Collections in Westchester and Fairfield Counties, Neuberger
Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York
Solo exhibition University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Socks on my Spoons, University
Gallery, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
1999
Group exhibition Drip, Blow, Burn: Forces of Nature in Contemporary Art,
The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Sculpture, Barbara Krakow
Gallery, Boston, MA
1995-96
Group exhibition Beyond Gender, Snug Harbor Cultural Center,
Staten Island, NY
Group exhibition The Shape of Sound, Exit Art/The First World,
New York, NY
1996
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Museum of Art, Rhode Island
School of Design, Providence
1997
Joan Mitchell Award
Group exhibition Wood Work, Fisher Landau Center, Long Island City, NY
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
Solo exhibition For Ursie A., T.F. Green Airport, Providence, Rl
1997-98
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Yorkshire Sculpture Park,
England; traveled to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,
MO; Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
2000
Group exhibition The End: An Independent Vision of the History of
Contemporary Art, Exit Art/The First World, New York, NY
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Cranbrook Art Museum,
Bloomfield Hills, Ml
Solo exhibition Bowl with Folds, Public Art Fund, Doris C. Freedman
Plaza, New York, NY
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Galerie Lelong, Zurich,
Switzerland
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Ml
2002
Queens Family Courthouse Permanent Installation
Solo exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard: On an Epic Scale, Neuberger
Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York,
Purchase, NY
For further reading:
Ashton, Dore, Marek Bartelik, and Matti Megged. The Sculpture of
Ursula von Rydingsvard. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996.
Friedman, Martin. Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture. Madison,
Wisconsin: Madison Art Center, 1998.
1998
Group exhibition Sculptors and Their Environments, Pratt Manhattan
Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York, NY
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Checklist of the Exhibitiion
Dimensions are in inches.
Height precedes width precedes depth.
All works courtesy of the artist and Galerie Lelong, New York, NY.
Krasawica ll, 1998-2001
cedar, graphite
72 x 264 x 48
River Bowl, 2001
cedar
174 x 120 x 120
Can’t Eat Black, 2001-02
cedar
55 1/2 x 216 x 212
Lace Collars, 2001-02
cedar
70 x 505 x 20
mama, build me a fence, 2001-02
cedar, graphite, chalk
168 x 367 x 17
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