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Miracle
in the Scrap Heap:
The Sculpture of Richard Stankiewicz
Miracle
in the Scrap Heap: The Sculpture of Richard Stankiewicz, organized
by the Addison Gallery of American Art, is the first major retrospective
exhibition of work by the American artist who transformed mundane
objects into works of art. The exhibition includes more than 40
of his pioneering "junk sculptures" of the 1950s, made
from objects ranging from roller skate wheels and boiler tanks,
to nuts, bolts, and scrap metal. Today, Stankiewicz’s work
seems contemporary today, with artists frequently appropriating
materials from the realm of everyday.
Richard Stankiewicz (1922–83; pronounced "stang·KAY·vitch")
played an important part in redefining art in New York in the
1950s. Stankiewicz came to prominence with the second generation
of the New York School, artists who had served in World War II
and studied art on the GI Bill. Most of the painters in this group
were Abstract Expressionists, but Stankiewicz’s sculpture
was ostensibly figurative. He used modern industrial materials
in his works, as did Alexander Calder and David Smith. But instead
of using freshly fabricated steel, Stankiewicz chose to weld together
odds and ends of broken-down, rusted machinery. He transformed
objects of little intrinsic value into thoughtful and often witty
artistic constructions.
Reverential and sardonic, humorous and profoundly serious, his
art reveals the kind of layered ambiguity that defies conclusive
classification. Exhibited widely in the 1950s and ’60s, in
both the United States and Europe, Stankiewicz has been associated
with—and presented under the rubrics of—a wide range
of styles or trends since that time: Abstract Expressionism, junk
sculpture, assemblage, neo-Dada, Pop Art, and the French Nouveau
Réalisme movement of the 1960s. Perhaps because of this,
his art has eluded—and continues to elude—conclusive
critical identification.
Richard Stankiewicz, Middle-Aged Couple, 1954
Iron and found metal pieces, Collection Museum
of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Photo by James Isberner
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Richard
Stankiewicz, Warrior, 1952/53, found objects and welded
steel, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
His
art of the 1970s conformed to the greater clarity and cleanliness
of the minimalist-influenced styles of the day. But although he
was favorably reviewed, Stankiewicz did not attain the degree
of prominence he had enjoyed in the 1950s, when the combination
of surrealist fantasy, finely calibrated composition, and derelict
materials had made him a leader. Indeed, in Art News of January,
1953, critic Sidney Geist hailed Stankiewicz’s work as nothing
short of a "miracle in the scrapheap."
Exhibiton
Tour
After premiering at the Addison Gallery, the exhibition will travel
to the: AXA Gallery, New York, New York, August-October, 2003;
The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, April-July,
2004; and the Musée Jean Tinguely, in Basel, Switzerland,
September-November, 2004.
Publication
A fully illustrated, 160-page catalogue with an introduction by
Adam D. Weinberg, Director of the Addison Gallery of American
Art; and essays by Emmie Donadio, guest curator and Associate
Director, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, Vermont;
Martin Friedman, Director Emeritus of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,
Minnesota; and Jonathan Wood, Research Coordinator, Henry Moore
Institute, Leeds, United Kingdom. The book, published by the Addison
Gallery and distributed by the University of Washington Press,
also includes a richly illustrated narrative chronology, a bibliography,
and color plates of most works in the exhibition.
Funding
This exhibition and publication has been generously funded by
the Dedalus Foundation, The Judith Rothschild Foundation, and
the Sidney R. Knafel Exhibitions Fund.
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