拍品專文
Joel Shapiro's figurative sculptures stand at the crossroads of Minimalism and Expressionism--a sort of subjectified, emotional minimalism. While the forms in his sculptures are regular and geometric, the figures themselves are always slightly out of balance, slightly out of control. The tension of this relationship between the rational and the emotional gives these works their psychological resonance.
Roberta Smith wrote that Shapiro had created
his particular brand of Post-Minimalism, of art-about-art-about- himself...He is one of many outstanding artists whose readings and misreadings of Minimalism resulted in such bewildering and ultimately fertile tumult. However, more than most, his art brought into the open the psychological and aesthetic dilemmas faced by many of his contemporaries: whether to work abstract or not; whether to make objects or not; whether to make art personal or not; and whether, in the face of all these issues, to show one's insecurity about them or not...(R. Smith, Joel Shapiro, New York 1982, pp. 11-12).
In creating these figurative works, Shapiro "has helped bring sculpture back from the brink of extinction, imbuing it, in the process, with a personal yet universally legible meaning" (ibid.).
Untitled, 1986-87, is a human-scaled figure. It is also one of the most delicately balanced of Shapiro's sculptures. Standing high on one leg, the figure seems a container of poised energy, ready to spring forward or, conversely, to collapse at the slightest breath of air.
Roberta Smith wrote that Shapiro had created
his particular brand of Post-Minimalism, of art-about-art-about- himself...He is one of many outstanding artists whose readings and misreadings of Minimalism resulted in such bewildering and ultimately fertile tumult. However, more than most, his art brought into the open the psychological and aesthetic dilemmas faced by many of his contemporaries: whether to work abstract or not; whether to make objects or not; whether to make art personal or not; and whether, in the face of all these issues, to show one's insecurity about them or not...(R. Smith, Joel Shapiro, New York 1982, pp. 11-12).
In creating these figurative works, Shapiro "has helped bring sculpture back from the brink of extinction, imbuing it, in the process, with a personal yet universally legible meaning" (ibid.).
Untitled, 1986-87, is a human-scaled figure. It is also one of the most delicately balanced of Shapiro's sculptures. Standing high on one leg, the figure seems a container of poised energy, ready to spring forward or, conversely, to collapse at the slightest breath of air.