Curt Brill
Raynie
2001

Name: Raynie
Brand: Curt Brill
Price: 4200 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

This expressive bronze figure "Raynie" stands on an attached wood base as shown. The artist added small strokes of red and green to highlight selected areas of the dark patina and create a unique, painterly finish on the bronze. The wood base has a natural, unfinished edge on one side, and the character of the natural wood beautifully complements the sculpture's relaxed pose and gestural qualities. The signature, year, and edition number (1 of 12) are inscribed on the outside edge of the figure's right foot. Curt Brill aims to express movement, humor, and serenity in his figurative sculpture. He begins by making quick drawings as his models sit, stand, or lie down in relaxed, natural poses. Brill makes sure to retain the immediacy of these sketches as he renders them in three dimensions as clay maquettes, and then they are cast in bronze using the lost-wax process. In the forward to Brill's 2005 book, Peter S. Briggs described “the push of [Brill's] hand, the remnant impression of fingers, the shapes of his tools, [and] the changes in pressure of his arm" as the visible evidence of Brill's clay sculpting process, still seen in the textured surfaces of the finished bronzes. Briggs continues, "Stretched, twisted, exaggerated and relaxed, his sculptures… fix his anatomical forms in positions that range from ungainly to graceful.” The final bronzes are sculptures stripped of heroism, narrative, and romanticism. This realism, due in part to the artist's experience as a drug rehabilitation counselor and a professional in state-run mental institutions, strives to expose the beauty and grace found within human imperfections, not in spite of them. Brill chanced upon sculpture as a means of expression while taking a pottery class at Cornell University. After receiving a B.S. in Graphic and Product Design from the university, he embarked on a career as a sculptor and gained a national reputation for large-scale raku pottery. In 1980, however, he poured his first bronze and discovered a fascination with the medium that he has since made his own. Brill has shown widely throughout the United States and Japan. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at such venues as: the Amakusa Community Center (Japan), Macchi Community Center (Japan), Cornell University, Tokyo Museum of Art, and Tucson Museum of Art.

Creator:

Curt Brill (1952, American)

Creation Year:

2001

Dimensions:

Height: 21.5 in (54.61 cm)Width: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Depth: 9 in (22.86 cm)

Medium:

Bronze,Wood

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century