Family (Blumenfeld)

Last updated
Family
BlumenfeldFamily1983.jpg
Artist Helaine Blumenfeld
Year1983 (1983)
TypeNorwegian blue granite
Dimensions150 cm× 69 cm(largest piece is approx. 89 in× 58 in× 27 in)
LocationE. Wisconsin Ave. between N. 3rd St. and N. 4th St., Milwaukee
Coordinates 43°2′20.393″N87°54′53.228″W / 43.03899806°N 87.91478556°W / 43.03899806; -87.91478556 Coordinates: 43°2′20.393″N87°54′53.228″W / 43.03899806°N 87.91478556°W / 43.03899806; -87.91478556
OwnerAdministered by Federal Plaza Associates

Family is a public artwork by American artist Helaine Blumenfeld located on the Henry Reuss Federal Plaza, which is in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The sculpture is made from Norwegian blue granite. It consists of five forms, with the largest form measuring approximately 89 x 58 x 27 inches. Family was installed in the Henry Reuss Federal Plaza in 1983.

Americans Citizens, or natives, of the United States of America

Americans are nationals and citizens of the United States of America. Although nationals and citizens make up the majority of Americans, some dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents may also claim American nationality. The United States is home to people of many different ethnic origins. As a result, American culture and law does not equate nationality with race or ethnicity, but with citizenship and permanent allegiance.

Helaine Blumenfeld is an American sculptor particularly known for her large-scale public sculptures. She creates works primarily in marble and bronze but also in granite and other materials. Examples of her work are in the collections of Clare College, Cambridge, the Courtauld Gallery, the Smithsonian and the Tate. Amongst her large-scale public works are Family in granite installed in Henry Reuss Federal Plaza in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Tempesta in marble at The Lancasters, London; and Fortuna in bronze at Canary Wharf, London. A fellow and past vice president of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, Blumenfeld was awarded an Honorary OBE in 2011. She lives in the United Kingdom and works there and in Pietrasanta, in Tuscany in central Italy.

Milwaukee Largest city in Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and the fifth-largest city in the Midwestern United States. The seat of the eponymous county, it is on Lake Michigan's western shore. Ranked by its estimated 2014 population, Milwaukee was the 31st largest city in the United States. The city's estimated population in 2017 was 595,351. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee metropolitan area which had a population of 2,043,904 in the 2014 census estimate. It is the third-most densely populated metropolitan area in the Midwest, surpassed only by Chicago and Detroit, respectively. Milwaukee is considered a Gamma global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network with a regional GDP of over $105 billion.

Contents

Description

The granite sculpture was commissioned to Helaine Blumenfeld for the plaza in front of the then in-construction Henry S. Russ Federal building. The artwork consists of five abstract biomorphic blue granite forms which sit in a circle. The sculptures are movable and the public is encouraged to climb, touch and rearrange the works periodically. [1]

Information

Family is located on the Henry Reuss Federal Plaza and tied to the building it sits in front of. The building was the brainchild of US House member Henry S. Reuss. He believed it would encourage the development of downtown Milwaukee, as well as group thirty federal agencies under one roof. When Reuss made the plans for the new building public, he announced that there would be no federal money given for artwork, explaining that an anonymous donor had offered to donate an outdoor sculpture. [2] Blumenfeld was thus privately commissioned to create Family in the late 1970s. She selected 68 tons of Norwegian blue granite, which she had shipped to Carrara, Italy. Blumenfeld and four assistants proceeded to chisel the five forms. "Family is the first of several of Blumenfeld's multi-component outdoor sculptures. Although her works are abstract, the forms are organic and are intended to symbolize human figures and their relationships. Like members of a family, each of the humanoid figures relates strongly to the others, but retains its separate identity." [2] As the viewer moves the parts, the sculpture changes; the same way that relationships are always changing. Blumenfeld refers to this evolving relationship stating, "One is sometimes stronger, one is weaker. Looking at a family you see the different values placed on each member at different times. I'm trying to show the dynamic tension in a relationship." [3]

Henry S. Reuss American politician

Henry Schoellkopf Reuss was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Wisconsin.

Carrara Comune in Tuscany, Italy

Carrara is a city and comune in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some 100 kilometres (62 mi) west-northwest of Florence. Its motto is Fortitudo mea in rota.

Acquisition

The work cost around $250,000 and was funded by two anonymous donors. [1]

Artist

Helaine Blumenfeld was born in New York in 1942. She obtained a PhD in philosophy from Columbia University before moving to Paris to work as an assistant in the Cubist sculptor's Ossip Zadkine's studio. [4] She decided to begin sculpting after having interesting vivid dreams and realizing that words were not enough to express what she experienced. Her early works concentrated in transforming a figurative form into a symbolic meaning. Later she began exploring the relationship between more than one form. [2] Blumenfeld believes that sculpture is not about narrative, but is instead centered on experience and process, having the potential to excite the viewer's imagination. She develops her ideas in clay to get a sense of the figure's form before translating them to their final materials. "Blumenfeld's daily practice remains grounded in the working of raw materials, a physical relationship that provides a channel for her imagination. She thrives in the solitary confines of her studio where she can think, dream, experiment and take risks without constraint." [4] The artist relocated to Cambridge, England in 1976. She currently splits her time between Cambridge and her workshop in Pietrasanta, Italy.

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2018 population of 8,398,748 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 19,979,477 people in its 2018 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 22,679,948 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

Columbia University Private Ivy League research university in New York City

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. It has been ranked by numerous major education publications as among the top ten universities in the world.

Ossip Zadkine French sculptor

Ossip Zadkine was a Russian-born French naturalized artist. He is primarily known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Family, (sculpture).", Smithsonian Institution Research Information Service (2001). Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 Buck, Diane M. and Virginia A. Palmer (1995). Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook, p. 49. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison
  3. ↑ Parr, Lynn; "The Word is Not Enough Archived 2012-03-02 at the Wayback Machine ", Artists and Illustrators. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  4. 1 2 Flynn, Tom; Upson, Nicola; "Introduction, Helaine Blumenfeld official website. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
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