John Van Alstine

Tiller VI

2002-2021

CUBE, PYRAMID & SPHERE is a major work created over a five-year period. It is a variable installation, composed of 4 geometric sculptures of high-fired clay pigmented with oxides, a block of wood found in the ocean, river gravel, limestone, and slate shattered to fragments. Note the surface textures, the ground of natural stone, the colors black, umber, copper and tan throughout, the pattern of slate fragments. CUBE, PYRAMID & SPHERE is characteristic of Wortman's practice – warm, contemporary, uniquely crafted, yet speaks to ancient, primitive traditions of art-making that cross cultures and histories. Highly attuned to the art of Africa, the Middle East, India and Asia, his forms are organic abstracts with masculine and feminine attributes that resonate together as a pleasing enigma. They make sense immediately, yet never give up all their secrets. CUBE, PYRAMID & SPHERE was exhibited at BASE: Immersive Art Experiences, Industry City, Brooklyn, NY, 2017. It was also reproduced in Tussle Magazine, alongside "An Interview with Harold Wortsman...

Title: "After 77 Years, Again in Fear?" - Mixed Media Assemblage on Canvas Discover the powerful and thought-provoking artwork "After 77 Years, Again in Fear?" by acclaimed contempo...

Title: "After 77 Years, Again in Fear?" - Mixed Media Assemblage on Canvas Discover the powerful and thought-provoking artwork "After 77 Years, Again in Fear?" by acclaimed contemporary artist Irena Orlov. This original mixed media assemblage, measuring H34" x W57", masterfully incorporates various dimensional elements and techniques, including painting and found objects, to create a captivating abstract piece with a profound global message. Medium and Materials: This extraordinary artwork is a mixed media assemblage on fine art canvas, skillfully hand-stretched over 1" deep wood stretched bars. The artist's creative vision weaves together an intriguing combination of materials, including plastic, original World War 2 chemical gas masks, copper mesh, and small metal round container...

Dimitri Hadzi Uxmal, 1991 Cast bronze on custom made granite base 17 × 30 1/2 × 14 inches The title UXMAL, refers to the ancient Mayan city of Uxmal, which is known for its "Pyramid of the Magician" Provenance: Acquired by the original owner from the prestigious Gremillion Gallery in Houston, Texas (accompanied by a copy of the original receipt) Measurements: Base: 26.5 by 11 by 1.75 inches Work longest 30.5 inches Widest 14 inches Highest. 17 inches More about Dimitri Hadzi" Derived from the figure and mythic narratives, Hadzi’s sculpture references antiquity and classical artifacts – abstracted anatomical forms, columnar and other architectural elements, helmets, weaponry and body armor function as visual metaphors for ancient cultures. “I was interested in mythology, and I was interested in movement,” Hadzi remarked on his years in Rome, “I was attempting through formal methods to exaggerate sexual tension or apprehension. Suddenly I was myself in an atmosphere of freedom.” [1] Powerfully rendered in bronze his sculptures convey raw emotion, brute strength and mass, tempered with a delicate rush of whimsy, vivacity and sensuality. Born in New York City on March 21, 1921, Hadzi graduated from Cooper Union in 1950 and received a Fulbright Fellowship in the same year. After studying sculpture in Greece, he moved to Rome under the GI Bill where he lived for twenty-five years. Hadzi returned to the U.S. where he taught at Harvard University for fourteen years. He continued to create sculpture until his death in 2006. Hadzi is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; The Phillips Collection and the Guggenheim Museum. Receiving over twenty sculpture commissions, Hadzi’s work appears in public squares, concert halls, federal and private plazas, and universities throughout the world. --------------- [1] Elsen, Albert. “On Artistic Freedom: An Interview,” Dimitri Hadzi, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996), 30. Additional Biography: Dimitri Hadzi (1921 – 2006) is among the most distinguished modernist sculptors, creator of works in bronze and stone that are powerfully abstract and expressionist in character. His contribution to the international language of sculpture continues to influence and inspire through permanent installations and collections, and exhibitions worldwide. Born to Greek-American immigrant parents in New York City, he had a talent for drawing at an early age and won a prize for his young ability. But, it wasn't until after serving in the Air-force in the South Pacific during WWII that he turned his sights fully to painting and sculpture, going on to study both at Cooper Union. Eventually, he would become a mainstay of the Cambridge, MA art community. He was a Guggenheim Fellow (1957), the winner of the Venice Biennale Award (1962), and the Rome Prize (1974). His most notable sculptures are: Copley Place Waterfall (Boston, MA), Owen Glass Co. (Toledo, OH), as well as Thermopolis, adjacent to Boston’s City Hall Plaza, and the former Omphalos in Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA). Hadzi is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art; National Gallery of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; The Phillips Collection and the Guggenheim Museum. Additionally, Hadzi was also a prolific painter, and printmaker. He also taught at Harvard University for over a decade. Famously, David Hockney attended one of Hadzi’s classes at the Carpenter Center at Harvard, where Hadzi served as director. The two of them spent time together painting and discussing techniques. Hockney gifted Hadzi one of his paintings. He worked alongside his good friend, Nobel Prize winning Irish poet...

Intricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technica...

Intricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technical art of mosaic making. Clas...

FOR THE OLD ONES, a ceramic sculpture of high-fired clay pigmented with oxides, sitting on a slab of limestone. It is a recent work by artist Harold Wortsman. Note the blending of volumetric and organic form in this work, the mark-making and perforations on the surface, the striking colors of black and copper in variable stripes – it is characteristic of his practice – warm, contemporary, uniquely crafted, yet speaks to ancient, primitive traditions of art-making that cross cultures and histories. Highly attuned to the art of Africa, the Middle East, India and Asia, his forms are organic abstracts with masculine and feminine attributes that resonate together as a pleasing enigma. They make sense immediately, yet never give up all their secrets. From Harold Wortsman – "With sculpture, my material of choice is high-fired clay. Pieces are first low-fired in an electric kiln. I do not use glazes. Instead, I use oxides applied to the bisqued (low-fired) clay. As with a tattoo, oxides permit the surface underneath to breathe—like naked skin. The work is then high-fired in a gas kiln with double reduction to cone 10. The final temperature is 2,300 degrees F. At a certain point, oxygen intake is reduced to the kiln. Because the fire has reached a critical mass, it needs oxygen and chemically takes it from the clay and the oxides painted on. Like a jazz improvisation, each kiln load comes out slightly different." From Jonathan Goodman, Poet & Art Critic – "Wortsman re-examines ancient and modern traditions in light of what it means to make art." – Tussle Magazine, July 2019. Harold Wortsman is a sculptor and printmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He “creates forms that bring to mind archaic cult objects and exude a quiet concentrated strength.” (Argauer Zeitung, Switzerland). His work, an edgy mix of freedom and clarity, can be found in public and private collections in the US, including The Library of Congress, Yale University, The New York Public Library Print Collection, The New York Historical Society, Smith College, Indiana University’s Lilly Library, Brandeis University, The Newark Public Library Special Collections Division, and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Print Archive. Also in private and public collections in Europe, including the Municipal Collection of the City of Brugg, Switzerland. Harold studied at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, with sculptor George Spaventa...

Marble, granite and limestone sculpture

Smooth black granite has been engineered by Canadian artist Jeremy Guy into an elegant sculpture in the form of a mobius strip. Granite base measures 7.25 W x 7.25 D x 2 H inches. ...

"Mirror" is a site specific installation that was exhibited in the show "Dialects of Place(s) by Land Report Collective at COOP Gallery in Nashville, TN. In this piece, Jobe uses industrial materials such as insulation foam, concrete, window screen, and graphite tracing paper to create a patterned structure that protrudes from the corner and carries the viewer's eye upward. At the bottom of the piece, we see delicately balanced concrete on top of pale blue insulation foam. The patterned concrete and insulation foam carries the viewer's eye upwards towards another pop of blue on top of the aluminum window screen frame. The screen gives the viewer a window in which to look through the piece. On one side, this mesh frames the graphite paper and on the other side the viewer can see the patterned concrete and insulation foam. Review from "The Rib" about "Mirror" One of the more surprising works here is Nashville-based Brian Jobe...