David Barr

Modernist Michigan Sculpture Abstract Brutalist Fractured Metal Orb Walnut Base

c.1990

Copper and wood box. "Americordo #7" is composed of copper tiles inlaid to the bottom half of the box and on the top rests a patinated etched copper or bronze circle. The box when closed measures to be 17" Sq. x 3.5" H. David Barr (1939-2015) is an American sculptor and painter from Detroit, MI. Known for constructivist sculpture, architecture and surrealist, assemblage box sculpture collage works. Born in 1939, Barr is an internationally known artists and has created many installations in natural settings. Vault took over a year to complete. His sculptures represent mathematics, geography and structurist nature, and otherwise known as "geo-structures." This one is kinetic and can be moved around. Barr is a graduate of Wayne State University and recipient of the WSU Distinguished Alumni Award. Influenced by sculptor Charles Biederman. In 1995 he founded the Michigan Legacy Art Park, and has pieces at the Chrysler World Headquarters, Flint's Bishop Airport, the Detroit Zoo, the State of Michigan Historical Museum and the Meadowbrook Festival Grounds Barr earned a master’s of fine arts degree from Wayne State University and was an associate professor of sculpture at Macomb Community College in Warren for 37 years. He worked on perhaps the largest sculpture in the world, the Four Corners Project, with installations at Greenland, Africa, Irian Jaya (New Guinea) and Easter Island. His sculptures are located all over the state of Michigan, but perhaps his most recognizable is Transcending, a blend of bronze, steel and granite that acknowledges the contributions of Detroit’s laborers and skilled tradespeople. David Barr is the founder of Michigan Legacy Art Park. David’s career as an artist, instructor, author and global thinker has crossed borders around the world, bringing people and ideas together. Over fifty years as a sculptor, David created a body of work that includes hundreds of wall-hanging structurist reliefs, sculptures for public spaces (such as Transcending in Hart Plaza, Detroit done with Sergio De Giusti), works for private collections, massive global projects (such as The Four Corners Project) and Michigan Legacy Art Park. David’s studio was in Detroit for fifteen years until he realized he needed nature as a source of inspiration. In 1977 he bought 4 acres of land in rural Oakland County (now Novi) and in 1979 built his home, a contemporary structure that has become the centerpiece of his own art park. His work is included in the collection of outdoor sculptures at The Dennos Museum Center along with Clement Meadmore, Hanna Stiebel...

Benedict Tatti (1917-1993) worked in New York city as a sculptor, painter, educator, and video artist. He studied stone and wood carving under Louis Slobodkin at the Roerich Museum. He later attended the Leonardo da Vinci School of Art studying under Attilio Piccirelli. In l939 he taught adult classes with the Teachers Project of the WPA and attended the Art Students League for three and a half years on full scholarship. He studied under William Zorach and Ossip Zadkine and later became Zorach’s assistant. Later in his career, he attended the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. During World War II, Tatti served in the United States Army Air Force, where he spent three years assigned to variety of projects. In 1948, Benedict Tatti married Adele Rosenberg in New York City. Throughout his career, Tatti continuously experimented with various media. From 1952-1963, Tatti executed sculptural models of architectural and consumer products for the industrial designers, Raymond Loewy Associates; later he became a color consultant for the firm. In the 1960s, influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, Tatti turned from carving directly in wood and stone to creating assemblage architecture sculptures, using bronze metal and other industrial materials. He was included in the important show "Aspects de la Sculpture Americaine", at Galerie Claude Bernard Paris, France, in October 1960 along with Ibram Lassaw, Theodore Roszak, David Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Danese Corey, Dorothy Dehner, Lin Emery, Lily Ente, David Hayes, Louise Nevelson, Tony Rosenthal, Richard Stankiewicz, Sam Szafran...

Koji Takei works reference synthetic cubism in the most literal of senses. In cubist artworks, the objects are broken up, analyzed and re-assembled in abstracted form. These pieces...

JULIO GONZÁLEZ Spanish, 1876 - 1942 PETIT MASQUE DÉCOUPÉ MONTSERRAT signed "GONZALEZ" 5 of an edition of 9 Cire Perdue "C. VALSUANI" foundry seal bronze...