Liz Glynn’s The Myth of Singularity, Bronze Exhibit on View at LACMA
Detail of Untitled (after Balzac, with Burgher), 2014, Liz Glynn, courtesy of the artist, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, and Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles.
Photo by Brica Wilcox
Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity, an exhibit featuring eight bronze sculptures created by the Los Angeles-based artist, is on view for the first time, now through May 22, 2016 at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity was created by recombining recasts of Rodin sculptures. Some Rodin works, such as The Thinker or Monument to Honore de Balzac, are familiar forms, while others carry the sculptor’s imprint in a more subtle way. Glynn employed a methodology Rodin himself used in his studio: casting, recombining, and cannibalizing previous sculptures. After recasting Rodin’s figures during her 2013 [de]-lusions of Grandeur performance, Glynn selected and recombined parts of the sculptures to assemble the works of the current show. Behind Glynn’s work there is a deep research on modern sculpture in general, and Rodin’s sculpture in particular, to question modern notions such as singularity and monumentality.
The Rodin-inspired series was produced from plaster props generated during Glynn’s performance The Myth of Singularity (after Rodin), which took place at LACMA in January 2013. The Myth of Singularity began as a cycle of five performances by Glynn entitled [de]-lusions of Grandeur. Along with 10 other sculptors, Glynn explored the process of replication, recombination, and shifts in material and scale which was often used by French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). Glynn conducted extensive research on works in LACMA’s collection by Rodin, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, David Smith, and Donald Judd, and responded to the process of creating, moving, and erecting large-scale sculptures and the Herculean human efforts necessary to do so. Installed both as groups and as single monuments, this exhibit presents the eight sculptures in several locations throughout LACMA’s campus.
“It is exciting to see how a performance—usually defined by its ephemeral nature— generates a massive, solid bronze suite of sculptures,” remarks José Luis Blondet, LACMA’s Associate Curator of Special Initiatives. “We are pleased to see an artist engage so rigorously and imaginatively with our permanent collection. Installed throughout the museum grounds, we wanted to provide different contexts in which to see the sculptures, from public spaces to more intimate settings like the Impressionist galleries.”
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Also in this Issue:
- Ringing in the New Year with Copper
- Brass Adds Warmth to Contemporary Judaica Art
- Copper’s Part in Star-Lite Stained Glass
- Copper Lifetime Art Forms, Completely Handcrafted in Louisiana
- Liz Glynn’s The Myth of Singularity, Bronze Exhibit on View at LACMA