Peter Agostini

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Peter Agostini
Born(1913-02-13)February 13, 1913
Hell's Kitchen, New York City
DiedMarch 27, 1993(1993-03-27) (aged 80)
New York City
EducationLeonardo da Vinci Art School (1935-1936), largely self-taught
Known forSculpture
Notable workPlaster cast sculptures of everyday objects: beer cans, eggs, pillows, and balloons
StylePop Art; New York School
MovementExpressionism
ChildrenDiana Agostini Whelan, Celine November
ElectedNational Academy of Design, 1990

Peter Agostini (1913-1993) was a major American sculptor, credited as a Pop Art pioneer of the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. [1] [2] Associated with several New York School artists, including Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning and David Smith, Agostini did not classify himself as Pop. He also "never abandoned the traditional subjects of sculpture like the human head and figure, and particularly the horse." [1] [3] [4]

Contents

Frequently praised for his "extremely beautiful and often original" work, Agostini's identity as an artist was long considered a "puzzle." [4] ARTNews editor Thomas B. Hess rebutted that opinion by noting that Agostini was “an artist with many arrows to his bow who is working in a period that likes the monolithic shaft.” [4] [5] [6] Judith E. Stein in Art in America concurred, writing that "Agostini has always been his own man, an artist whose concern for pure esthetic values has never impeded his search for new sculptural forms or new techniques to achieve them." [6]

In a 1975 review, the New York Times praised Agostini without reservation, describing him as "an artist who combines imagination, ability and humor in his plaster, bronze and terra cotta works," before explaining that:

Although his shapes may bulge, pinch or even atrophy, they assertively suggest the human condition, including its strengths and frailties and its virtues and vices. The works synthesize both a world of reality and one of fantasy, shuttling freely between the two. The sculptor is a protean talent, allowing his objects to assume many forms and to follow multiple stylistic directions. But for all the differences in the various sculptures, his hand is eminently recognizable. [7]

Largely self-taught, Agostini's early influences included both Elie Nadelman and Alberto Giacometti, but the work he is best known for is characterized by a surreal, even humorous idiosyncratic style that molded 'found art,' from "'frozen life' pieces, such as clotheslines, pillows, and squeezed inner tubes as well as work that suggested more turbulent themes, such as hurricanes and 'action horses' in plaster. [8] Describing his own work, Agostini emphasized feeling over form:

That is the prime thing—to generate “up”—leverage, elevation. The balloons rising, clothes on a line being picked up by the wind. The same with my horses. Whatever use they are, my horses are about flight, bursting out. [9]

Career

In 1939, Agostini joined the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project where he worked as both a mold-maker for other sculptors and as a mannequin-maker. [6] Both jobs gave Agostini valuable experience with "'quick-setting plaster,' and helped him hit upon a way of casting directly from objects which bypassed the needed for modeling and emphasized the free, flowing properties of both the medium and the forms he chose." [6]

In 1959, Agostini held his first one-man show at the Galerie Grimaud. In 1960, he began showing at the Stephen Radich Gallery and, over the next few years, was celebrated by Time and ArtNews and participated in the 1964 World’s Fair exhibition, alongside Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Mallary." [10] That same year, Agostini was also a recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. [11] In 1990, Agostini was elected a full member of the National Academy of Design. [12]

His work would go on to be exhibited in four Whitney Biennial shows, and by the end of his career, he had participated in 25 solo shows and more than 100 group shows world-wide. [2] [13]

Agostini taught sculpture and painting at multiple institutions, including the New York Studio School, Columbia University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the Parsons School of Design. Watercolorist Ellen Murray studied with Agostini. [14] [9]

Education

Largely self-taught, Agostini had less than two years of formal training (1935-1936) at the tuition-free "New Deal" Leonardo da Vinci Art School where he became friends with artists George Spaventa and Nicholas Carone. [3] [9] [15]

Galleries

A handful of the NYC-based galleries Agostini was associated with include: [16]

Collections

Agonstin been collected by several notable institutions, including the:

Personal

Peter Agostini is the father of Diana Agostini Whelan of New York City and Celine November of New Jersey. [2]

References

  1. 1 2 "Sculpture: Plaster Cornucopia". Time Magazine. November 13, 1964.
  2. 1 2 3 Staff (March 30, 1993). "SCULPTOR AGOSTINI, POP PIONEER, DIES". News & Record.
  3. 1 2 Mulligan, Sean (August 2, 2017). "Peter Agostini". Encyclopedia of UNCG History. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 William H. Honan (March 31, 1993). "Peter Agostini, sculptor, 80, Dies; Ranged From Pop to Traditional". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ Taylor, Morgan (June 1, 2006). "Peter Agostini". artcritical. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Peter Agostini at the Comfort Gallery, Haverford College". Judith E. Stein. January 1, 1976. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
  7. ↑ Shirey, David L. (January 19, 1975). "A Sculpture Show At Montclair State". New York Times. p. 81. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Anita Shapolsky Gallery, 152 East 65th Street, NYC | Agostini, Peter" . Retrieved January 19, 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 Five Sculptors: Peter Agostini, Christopher Cairns, Bruce Gagnier, Jonathan Silver, George Spaventa. New York, NY: Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery (published 2006). March 31 – April 30, 2006.
  10. ↑ Cairns, Alexis. "Peter Agostini" . Retrieved January 19, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Peter Agostini Biography". artnet.com.
  12. ↑ "Peter Agostini". nationalacademy.emuseum.com. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
  13. ↑ Cairns, Alexis. "Peter Agostini" . Retrieved January 19, 2026.
  14. ↑ Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller (December 19, 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-135-63882-5.
  15. ↑ "Oral history interview with Peter Agostini, 1968 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
  16. ↑ Honan, William H. (March 31, 1993). "Peter Agostini, Sculptor, 80, Dies; Ranged From Pop to Traditional". New York Times. pp. March 31, 1993, Section B, Page 9. Retrieved January 17, 2026.


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