Cell Column

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Artist/Maker Beverly Pepper (American, 1922 – 2020)

Datec. 1980

MediumWeathering (Cor-Ten) steel

DimensionsOverall: 24 5/8 × 4 × 4 in. (62.5 × 10.2 × 10.2 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund

Object number2017.6

On view

DescriptionAlthough born in Brooklyn, Beverly Pepper has spent much of the past forty years in central Italy, and her work has been greatly influenced by the remnants of ancient cultures found there. Pepper initially studied painting, first at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the Art Students League in Manhattan, then in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, but turned to sculpture after a revelatory trip to the Cambodian temple complex Angkor Wat in 1960. Two years later, with a cadre of important male artists, including Henry Moore, David Smith, and Alexander Calder, she showed in the groundbreaking exhibition Sculture nella città (Sculptures in the City) in Spoleto, Italy. An eminently inquisitive artist who once wrote, “I create work to discover it. To make its acquaintance,” Pepper has experimented with a range of nontraditional metals and other materials. She was one of the first sculptors to work with both stainless steel and weathering, or Cor-Ten, steel in the 1960s and 1970s; in 1981, she was invited by the John Deere Company to cast ductile iron in its foundry, which she then incorporated into her practice on an occasional basis. Although crafted from industrial materials, Pepper’s sculptures mimic the totemic and hieratic forms carved in stone by ancient civilizations. The artist aspires to re-evoke the sensations of amazement and awe brought about by such monuments. Cell Column is a modestly sized example of Pepper’s work of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when, in addition to her monumental public sculptures—such as a series of four steel columns installed in the Piazza della Repubblica in Todi, Italy, in 1979—she forged and cast smaller-scale sculptures in iron and steel, all oriented vertically and inspired by industrial tools such as drill bits, mallets, and wedges. The artist was drawn to the aged look of Cor-Ten steel and the way its appearance alters over time as the material weathers and oxidizes. “My works in general,” she has written, “are intended to bridge the gap between the way one feels and the way one thinks in our environment—an environment that is in continual, often dramatic, change.” This sculpture was most likely included in an exhibition of Pepper’s work held at the Nina Freudenheim Gallery in Buffalo, New York, in 1980 and was recently purchased by the Wellin. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

Collections

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 107, illus.);

1980
possibly included in:
Buffalo, NY (Nina Frudenheim Gallery). "Beverly Pepper: Sculpture Drawings," May 16 - June 20, 1980.

Provenance 2017: Hamilton College (Ruth & Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase at auction from Sotheby's, New York;
1986 - 2017: Private collection, by purchase from Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY;
possibly 1980 - 1986: Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 236.