Beverly Pepper Art
Celebrated internationally for her large-scale abstract sculptures and site-specific works, provocative environmental artist Beverly Pepper was renowned for her ability to transform unwieldy industrial metals such as Cor-Ten steel and cast iron into seemingly weightless objets d’art.
Born in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York, Pepper studied advertising design, photography and industrial design at Pratt Institute before embarking on a career as a commercial art director. Meanwhile, she also attended the Art Students League and studied art theory at Brooklyn College under Hungarian painter György Kepes, who introduced her to the works of Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy.
In 1949, Pepper shifted her interest from commercial art to painting, studying in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. There, she met Cubist painters André Lhote and Fernand Léger, and visited the studios of Constantin Brâncusi and Ossip Zadkine. Pepper’s work at the time, owing to her experiences in Europe following the war, was largely characterized by a social realist perspective.
Pepper developed a passion for sculpting following a trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia in 1960. She made her debut in 1962 with a series of carved tree trunks at a gallery in Rome. That same year, Pepper was invited to exhibit at the “Festival of Two Worlds” show in Spoleto, Italy alongside the likes of Henry Moore and Alexander Calder. To prepare for the exhibition, Pepper quickly learned how to weld and soon became an accomplished metalworker — an unusual skill for women at the time.
By the late 1960s and 1970s, Pepper became known for her stainless-steel abstract and still-life sculptures such as Matera Scatolata. She also created several abstract geometric, foil-embossed collage prints including Collage 1 and Collage 3. In later years, she used heavier materials including bronze, iron and Cor-Ten steel in her modern monumental works such as Curved Presence.
Throughout her sculpting career, Pepper had countless solo exhibitions and participated in group shows, and won several awards, including the Allied Arts Honor Award by the American Institute of Architects in 1999, the Alexander Calder Prize in 2000 and the International Sculpture Center Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. Her sculptures are part of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
On 1stDibs, discover authentic Beverly Pepper sculptures and prints.
1980s Constructivist Beverly Pepper Art
Monoprint
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Beverly Pepper Art
Plexiglass
1970s Abstract Beverly Pepper Art
Paper, Etching
1960s Abstract Geometric Beverly Pepper Art
Foil
1980s Contemporary Beverly Pepper Art
Etching, Aquatint
20th Century Modern Beverly Pepper Art
Bronze
1980s Abstract Beverly Pepper Art
Steel, Iron
1940s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Beverly Pepper Art
Paint
1980s American Modern Vintage Beverly Pepper Art
Paper
Mid-20th Century Modern Beverly Pepper Art
Bronze
20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Beverly Pepper Art
Paper
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Beverly Pepper Art
Paper
2010s Abstract Beverly Pepper Art
Paper, Aquatint
1970s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Beverly Pepper Art
Paper
Mid-20th Century Abstract Geometric Beverly Pepper Art
Paper
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Beverly Pepper Art
1980s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Beverly Pepper Art
Paper
1990s Modern Beverly Pepper Art
Bronze
Late 20th Century Abstract Geometric Beverly Pepper Art
Gold Leaf
1960s Modern Beverly Pepper Art
Enamel, Steel
1960s Abstract Geometric Beverly Pepper Art
Foil
20th Century Modern Beverly Pepper Art
Bronze
20th Century Abstract Beverly Pepper Art
Steel
20th Century Abstract Beverly Pepper Art
Enamel, Stainless Steel
1960s Pop Art Beverly Pepper Art
Lithograph
1960s Abstract Geometric Beverly Pepper Art
Foil
1960s Abstract Geometric Beverly Pepper Art
Mixed Media
1960s Abstract Geometric Beverly Pepper Art
Mixed Media
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Beverly Pepper Art
Enamel, Stainless Steel
1980s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Beverly Pepper Art
Metal