Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Bella Feldman
Untitled, Steel, Iron Bella Feldman Brutalist Sculpture

$9,500
£7,212.24
€8,249.26
CA$13,272.88
A$14,762.34
CHF 7,708.43
MX$179,641.94
NOK 98,448.46
SEK 92,327.29
DKK 61,567.40
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Bella Feldman (American, b. 1930), Untitled, metal 2-wheeled cart with metal cables, (Provenance: Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY) gallery label affixed affixed verso, overall: 37"h x 48"l x 37"w. Provenance: Private Collection Bella Feldman is an American sculptor whose work addresses the themes of sexuality, war, and the persistent anxiety of the industrial age. Feldman is known for pioneering the use of glass with steel. Her work has affinities with Surrealism, Post-Minimalism, and the Feminist art movement, although she has no formal affiliation with these. A Professor Emeritus at the California College of the Arts, Feldman lives and works in Oakland, CA and London, England. Bella Feldman was born in 1930 in New York City to a family of working-class Jewish immigrants from Poland. She grew up in the Bronx tenements. Feldman attended The High School of Music & Art in Manhattan during World War II. Students were required to visit museums and galleries as part of the curriculum. When Feldman was thirteen, she visited her first art museum, the Museum of Modern Art. There, she saw Meret Oppenheim’s Object (1936), the fur-lined cup and saucer, and was struck by her strong psychological response to this work. Other early influences included Alberto Giacometti’s The Palace at 4 a.m. (1932) and the sculpture of David Smith. One of Feldman’s earliest sculptures Warrior (1952) pays tribute to Giacometti. During the Holocaust, Feldman lost numerous family members who remained in Poland, an experience that helped shape her worldview. This includes her life-long preoccupation with war, and the overwhelming effects of the military-industrial complex. Feldman received a BA from Queens College, City University of New York. She married Leonard Feldman at age 18, and moved to California with him in 1951 where they both accepted teaching positions. Feldman has two children, Nina Feldman, born 1954 and Ethan Feldman, born 1956. In 1965, Feldman started teaching at the California College of the Arts. In 1971 she and her family moved to Uganda, East Africa on a grant from the E. L. Cabot Trust Fund at Harvard University. Feldman spent two years teaching art in Uganda prior to the genocidal war in that country. Upon her return to CCA, she faced gender discrimination and a threat to her job. Her successful fight to retain her position prompted her to later become an advocate for other women faculty, who she helped to achieve equity and job security. Feldman was awarded an MA in 1973 from San Jose State University. Her teachers were Sam Richardson, John Battenberg and Fletcher Benton. In the 1970s, Feldman completed several installations portraying different stages of animal metamorphosis. These featured hybrid, mutant creatures, reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights—rats transformed into fish, and turtles with human features. The small-scale sculptures were displayed in large clusters, their multitude invoking aggression and infestation. Birds (1970), a cast metal flock of dead birds, preceded Kiki Smith’s Jersey Crows (1995) while Metamorphic Turtles (1973-75) anticipated Smith’s Sirens and Harpies (2002). War Toys and War Toys Redux War Toys (1992) is a series created in response to the first Gulf War. Feldman was incensed by the tone of admiration she heard in President George Bush’s voice when he referred to the Patriot missile. These works mocked the allure of weaponry and perceived glory in violence. The War Toys series relates to Magdalena Abakanowicz War Games' sculptures (1989), giant monstrous weapons made of metal and wood. However, the scale and sensuality of Feldman’s War Toys strip them of power. The series is in the tradition of contemporary women artists’ critique of war that entwines images of male sexuality and military aggression. Examples include Nancy Spero The War Series (1966–70), a response to the Vietnam War, and Judith Bernstein’s Iraq Travel Poster (1969). War Toys Redux (2003) evoked a different kind of mutation: the metal sculptures represented a hybrid between organic and machine forms. This adaptation continued the series with a new medium, combining blown glass with steel armatures. The sensuality of soft, bulbous glass forms reinforced the vision of earlier War Toys, effeminizing the objects of aggression and rendering them impotent. Flasks of Fiction Feldman pioneered the technique of blowing glass into metal forms in the late 1990s. The first series of mostly hanging sculptures Flasks of Fiction (1998-2001) were originally inspired by the lanterns in mosques Feldman visited while in Turkey. She said of these: “I combined glass and metal to suggest vulnerability and constraint as well as seduction.” Flasks of Fiction aligns Feldman with Post-Minimalist sculptors, such as Eva Hesse, who explored the inherent properties of materials and experimented with tension that results from binding bulging forms or upholding drooping forms. In Flasks of Fiction, hardened materials such as glass and steel make explicit references to bodies and sexuality, making the viewer respond viscerally to the corporeal hybrids. Large Sculpture Since 2003, Feldman has created a number of large-scale sculptures that embody her life-long interest in process and materials. Combining metal and glass, organic forms and machine parts, aggression and vulnerability, such works as Dyad (2003) and Jacob’s Ladder (2011) refer to Martin Puryear in scale and to Louise Bourgeois in psychic intensity. Exhibitions, Collections, Awards Feldman has won numerous awards for her work, and her sculpture is featured in private and museum collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA, and the Palm Springs Desert Museum. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at museums and galleries including The Oakland Museum of California; the Berkeley Art Museum; Musée des Beaux Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland; the Alternative Museum, New York; the Contemporary Jewish Museum San Francisco; Habatat Galleries, Chicago and Royal Oaks, MI; and Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles. Feldman was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artists award in 1986 and received Distinguished Artist Awards from Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA (2004), and Women’s Caucus for the Arts (2005). A fifty-year survey of her work took place at The Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA in 2013.
  • Creator:
    Bella Feldman (1930, American)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 48 in (121.92 cm)Width: 37 in (93.98 cm)Depth: 37 in (93.98 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38211197262

More From This Seller

View All
Mid Century Modern Brutalist Welded Abstract Expressionist Sculpture
Located in Surfside, FL
Neo-Dada Abstract Sculpture: Assemblages In contrast, abstract sculpture followed a slightly different course. Rather than focusing on non-figurative subject matter, it concentrated...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Mid Century Brutalist Iron Sculpture, Israeli Master David Palombo
By David Palombo
Located in Surfside, FL
Hand Forged Iron Candelabra Holocaust Memorial Judaic Menorah Sculpture David Palombo was an Israeli sculptor and painter. He was born in Turkey to a traditional family and immigrated to the Land of Israel with his parents in 1923. They lived in the Nahalat Shiva neighborhood of Jerusalem. In 1940 he began his studies at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, and from 1942 was a student of sculptor Ze’ev Ben-Zvi. For a period of time, Palombo was an assistant at Ben-Zvi’s studio and also taught at Bezalel. During this period he was also a member of the “Histadrut HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed” (The General Federation of Students and Young Workers in Israel). In the 1940s he took art lessons at night. In 1948 he went to Paris, where he visited the studio of the sculptor Constantin Brancusi whose work influenced him. Around 1958 he married the artist Shulamit Sirota. In 1960 he quit his job to devote himself to art. In 1964 he married for the second time to the artist Yona Palombo. The two of them went to live in an abandoned home on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. In 1966 he was killed when the motorcycle on which he was riding ran into a chain stretched across the street to prevent the desecration of Shabbat. His widow opened a museum in their home that was active until the year 2000. Work by Palombo is included in the Judaic collection of the Jewish Museum (a well known Hanukkah menora). Palombo executed the impressive metal gates of the Tent of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem, the memorial to the martyrs of the holocaust, as well as the gates to the Knesset Building the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco award) awarded him a scholarship for study in Japan. He worked in marble, granite, bronze, iron and steel. as well as with glass mosaic tiles. Palombo’s early works, in the 1950s, were influenced by modernist sculptors such as Brancusi. These works were composed of abstract images from nature and were carved out of stone or wood. At the end of the 1950s he began making metal sculptors, using the technique of welding. His work took on a more abstract and expressive character. Education 1940 Painting with Isidor Ascheim, New Bezalel School for Arts and Crafts, Jerusalem 1942 Sculpture with Zeev Ben Zvi, Jerusalem 1956 Mosaic, Ravenna, Italy 1958 Welding Course Awards And Prizes 1966 UNESCO Award Exhibitions: Sculpture in Israel, 1948-1958 Mishkan Museum of Art, Kibbutz Ein Harod Artists: Zvi Aldouby, Yitzhak Danziger, Arieh Merzer, Dov Feigin, Aaron Priver, David Palumbo, Menashe Kadishman, Kosso Eloul, Yehiel Shemi, Zahara Schatz. The Spring Exhibition of Jerusalem Artists, Artists' House, Jerusalem Artists: Palombo, David Bezalel Schatz, Mordechai Levanon, Fima, Ludwig Blum 12 Artists, The Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem Avraham Ofek, Aviva Uri, Avigdor Arikha, Yosl Bergner, Lea Nikel, Palombo, Ruth Zarfati, General Exhibition, Art in Israel 1960 Tel Aviv Museum of Art Artists: Naftali Bezem, Nachum Gutman, Shraga Weil, Shraga, Marcel Janco, Ruth Schloss
Category

Mid-20th Century Arte Povera Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Iron

1965 Canadian Israeli Art Brutalist Abstract Welded Steel Sculpture Eli Ilan
Located in Surfside, FL
Eli Ilan (אלי אילן), 1928-1982 was an Israeli sculptor. Abstract organic pod shape. in either steel or iron mounted on a wooden plinth. Ilan was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He enrolled in a premedical curriculum at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and emigrated to Israel in 1948. He then studied prehistoric archaeology and physical anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1956, he returned to Canada to study sculpture at the Ontario College of Art & Design. He lived in Kibbutz Sasa from 1959 to 1963. He died in 1982 in Caesarea, Israel. Education 1955 Hebrew University, Jerusalem, pre-historic archaeology and physical anthropology 1956 Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Canada, sculpture under Thomas Bowie 1959 Training College, Ottawa, criminal identification techniques 1969 Art Festival, Painting & Sculpture in Israel. Ganei Hataarucha, Tel Aviv Artists: Chana Orloff, Eli Ilan, Zvi Aldouby, Jacob El Hanani, Ludwig Blum, Aharon Bezalel, Koki Doktori, Israel Hadany, Marcel Janco, Dov Feigin, Abel Pann, Esther Peretz Arad, Reuven Rubin, Ivan Schwebel, Jakob Steinhardt, Boris Schatz, Bezalel (Lilik) Schatz, Louise Schatz...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Stainless Steel

Mid Century Brutalist Iron Sculpture, Israeli Master David Palombo
By David Palombo
Located in Surfside, FL
Hand Forged Iron Candelabra Holocaust Memorial Judaic Menorah Sculpture David Palombo was an Israeli sculptor and painter. He was born in Turkey and immigrated to the Land of Isra...
Category

Mid-20th Century Arte Povera Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Iron

Abstract Expressionist Patinated Metal Assemblage Sculpture Steel, Nuts, Bolts
By Robert Goodnough, 1917-2010
Located in Surfside, FL
Robert Arthur Goodnough (AMERICAN, 1917-2010) Untitled patina on steel with nuts and bolts Robert Goodnough (October 23, 1917 – October 2, 2010) was an American abstract express...
Category

20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Mid Century Brutalist Iron, Stone Sculpture, Israeli Master David Palombo
By David Palombo
Located in Surfside, FL
Hand Forged Iron and Drilled Stone Candelabra Holocaust Memorial Judaic Menorah Sculpture David Palombo was an Israeli sculptor and painter. He was born in Turkey to a traditional family and immigrated to the Land of Israel with his parents in 1923. They lived in the Nahalat Shiva neighborhood of Jerusalem. In 1940 he began his studies at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, and from 1942 was a student of sculptor Ze’ev Ben-Zvi. For a period of time, Palombo was an assistant at Ben-Zvi’s studio and also taught at Bezalel. During this period he was also a member of the “Histadrut HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed” (The General Federation of Students and Young Workers in Israel). In the 1940s he took art lessons at night. In 1948 he went to Paris, where he visited the studio of the sculptor Constantin Brancusi whose work influenced him. Around 1958 he married the artist Shulamit Sirota. In 1960 he quit his job to devote himself to art. In 1964 he married for the second time to the artist Yona Palombo. The two of them went to live in an abandoned home on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. In 1966 he was killed when the motorcycle on which he was riding ran into a chain stretched across the street to prevent the desecration of Shabbat. His widow opened a museum in their home that was active until the year 2000. Work by Palombo is included in the Judaic collection of the Jewish Museum (a well known Hanukkah menora). Palombo executed the impressive metal gates of the Tent of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem, the memorial to the martyrs of the holocaust, as well as the gates to the Knesset Building the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco award) awarded him a scholarship for study in Japan. He worked in marble, granite, bronze, iron and steel. as well as with glass mosaic tiles. Palombo’s early works, in the 1950s, were influenced by modernist sculptors such as Brancusi. These works were composed of abstract images from nature and were carved out of stone or wood. At the end of the 1950s he began making metal sculptors, using the technique of welding. His work took on a more abstract and expressive character. Education 1940 Painting with Isidor Ascheim, New Bezalel School for Arts and Crafts, Jerusalem 1942 Sculpture with Zeev Ben Zvi, Jerusalem 1956 Mosaic, Ravenna, Italy 1958 Welding Course Awards And Prizes 1966 UNESCO Award Exhibitions: Sculpture in Israel, 1948-1958 Mishkan Museum of Art, Kibbutz Ein Harod Artists: Zvi Aldouby, Yitzhak Danziger, Arieh Merzer, Dov Feigin, Aaron Priver, David Palumbo, Menashe Kadishman, Kosso Eloul, Yehiel Shemi, Zahara Schatz. The Spring Exhibition of Jerusalem Artists, Artists' House, Jerusalem Artists: Palombo, David Bezalel Schatz, Mordechai Levanon, Fima, Ludwig Blum 12 Artists, The Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem Avraham Ofek, Aviva Uri, Avigdor Arikha, Yosl Bergner, Lea Nikel, Palombo, Ruth Zarfati, General Exhibition, Art in Israel 1960 Tel Aviv Museum of Art Artists: Naftali Bezem, Nachum Gutman, Shraga Weil, Shraga, Marcel Janco, Ruth Schloss
Category

Mid-20th Century Arte Povera Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Stone, Iron

You May Also Like

Abstract Metal Sculpture Signed " BE 2010 "
By Harry Bertoia
Located in San Juan Capistrano, CA
Abstract Metal Sculpture Signed " BE 2010 " Welded steel with a bronze finish
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Vintage Abstract Sculpture by William Bowie
Located in Westlake Village, CA
This stunning Vintage Abstract Sculpture by William Bowie, dating back to the 1960s, showcases the artist’s unique approach to modern and abstract design. The sculpture is in overall...
Category

Vintage 1960s American Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal, Steel

Giovanni 'John’ Bucci Metal Art Sculpture, 1960s
Located in Savannah, GA
Giovanni 'John' Bucci (Italian-American, 1935-2019) A welded metal sculpture composed of various found metal pieces, 1960s. 17 inches wide by 18 ¼ inches tall by 8 inches deep
Category

Vintage 1960s American Brutalist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Brutalist Welded Iron Sculpture
Located in LOS ANGELES, CA
A striking Brutalist welded iron sculpture depicting an abstract geometric composition upon a tubular stem, above a rectangular base, in the manner of H...
Category

Mid-20th Century Unknown Brutalist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Iron

Glen Davis Welded Metal Sculpture
By Glen Davis
Located in Chicago, IL
c. 1970s in great vintage condition. W. Glen Davis is an American sculptor who was born in the 20th Century
Category

Vintage 1970s American Brutalist Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Unusual Brutalist Steel Sculpture
By David Smith
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
An unusual steel-torch cut and welded sculpture. Brutalist and jazzy. Unsigned. Heavy thick steel with patina and some areas gilded.
Category

Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Cut Steel