December Issue 2000
Governor's Mansion Simmons Gate at Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, SC
A wrought iron gate designed by Charleston, SC, blacksmith Philip Simmons and forged last year at Charleston's School of the Building Arts was commissioned for an entryway at the SC Governor's Mansion. Through the generosity of the Governor and his staff, the gate will be on view at the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, SC, until renovations at the Mansion are complete in early 2001. Simmons is widely recognized as South Carolina's foremost ornamental metalworker of the 20th century. The Charleston native has devoted his life to preserving the traditional art of the blacksmith and has crafted wrought iron works that can be found across the nation in places such as the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. With over seventy years of experience in ornamental iron working, Simmons includes among his accolades a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1982, the highest honor that the United States can present to a traditional artist.
A walnut and ebony rocker by noted California woodworker Sam Maloof, a gift of Ethel Brody and Leona Sobel is on view in Gallery 1. Rocker (#60) is a classic example of Maloof's style and remains among one of his most recognizable designs. His work is included in the White House Collection of Craft and will also be featured in a major retrospective at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC, in late 2001. Celebrated as one of America's premiere craftsmen, Maloof began producing his distinctive furniture in 1950, and the rapid success of his simple, organic designs helped establish a new interest in studio furniture production concurrent with the resurgence of other craft traditions in the 1960s.
Inner Worlds: Works in Glass is a new exhibition in the Garden Terrace area that will highlight the creations of contemporary glass artists. Several of the works included are on loan from noted collectors Isaac and Sonia Luski of NC, who have also generously contributed 16 examples of contemporary glass to the Museum in the past two years. Included in the selection of seven works is Spirelli by noted Italian artist, Lino Tagliapietra, characterized by sparely elegant shapes combined with techniques adopted from Venetian glassworking tradition. New Jersey artist Paul Stankard's Wildflower Bouquet with Spirits is a highly detailed work with floral forms and human "spirit" shapes. Boysenberry Bash is by NC artist Jon Kuhn who has works in the White House collection and the Renwick Gallery. Marc Peiser's "pine free" vessel, a tour de force of technical skill and one of his early masterpieces, is included as well as works by Ken Carder, Brent Kee Young and Stephen Dee Edwards.
For further infomation check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings or call the museum at 803/799-2810 or at (http://www.colmusart.org).
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Carolina Arts
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