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Yehiel Shemi
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Israeli,
born 1922
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Morning.
1972
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welded
steel,
painted
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123 ½ x 90 x
126 inches
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Collection
of Palm
Springs Art
Museum
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Gift of
Lionel R.
Bauman
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Yehiel Shemi, a native of Haifa,
Israel, began his art career as
an abstract sculptor working in
wood and stone. He acquired his
intimate knowledge of metalwork
techniques after World War II
when he worked in the
construction industry. He made
his first metal welded
sculptures from the steel found
in sunken ships in the harbors
of Haifa. In 1967, Shemi
received public art commissions
for the Jerusalem Theater that
combined found metal elements
with manufactured industrial
forms and concrete to create
monumental, nonrepresentational
sculpture. He often painted his
steel works, and combined with
his technical directness and
imaginative exploration of
industrial steel shapes, he
created an intensely personal
style.
While Shemi’s sculptural methods
stem from technology, his art is
conceptual, and may be viewed as
three-dimensional Constructivist
calligraphy. His works become
drawings in open space, as seen
in the strong, simple geometric
form of Morning.
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Michael Todd
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American,
born 1935
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Daimaru
XIV.
1980-83
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steel
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145 x 146 x
36 inches
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Collection
of Palm
Springs Art
Museum
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Gift of
Kathryn Doi
Todd and Mia
Doi Todd
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Born in Omaha, Nebraska and
raised in Chicago, Michael
Todd developed a love for
the arts at the Art
Institute of Chicago’s
classes for children. Todd
received a Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree in 1957 from
the University of Notre Dame
and a Master of Arts degree
from the University of
California, Los Angeles in
1959. He was granted the
Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in
1959 and a Fullbright
Fellowship in 1961. In
1970, Todd created his first
sculpture with a circle and
explained that "form seems
to flow more naturally and
freely in the circle, yet it
provides creative restraints
and discipline.”
Todd’s artworks are a blend of
organic and geometric shapes
that reflect his interest in
metaphysics. “I have always
felt like a painter at heart,
and my sculpture is certainly
much more painterly, that is,
more gestural and lyrical, than
most sculptors. I have been
painting on canvas occasionally
over the years, and the
paintings have always helped me
to loosen up the sculpture” says
Todd. His three-dimensional
works are infused with Asian
symbols as his open circles are
associated with distant
galaxies, infinity, erogenous
zones, the sun, the wheel and
halos.
Todd's Daimaru XIV
is one of many sculptures in a
series; Daimaru means
“large circle” in Japanese.
Todd says that “In Zen
brush-painting, the circle is a
master’s problem. It represents
everything and nothing, and in
so doing, the universe. The
Daimaru series in my attempt
to master the problem and
express my small part in the
cosmos.”
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John Buck
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American,
born 1946
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Standing
Figure.
1987
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bronze
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97 x 41 x 35
inches
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Collection
of Palm
Springs Art
Museum
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Gift of
Steve Chase
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John Buck, born in Ames,
Iowa, studied at the Kansas
City Art Institute, earning
a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree in 1968. He received
his Master of Fine Arts
degree from the University
of California, Davis in
1972, was awarded a National
Endowment for the Arts
Artist’s Fellowship in 1980,
and was a recipient of an
Awards in the Visual Arts
Fellowship in 1984.
Currently, he divides his
time between a home in
Hawaii and a Montana ranch
that he shares with his
wife, sculptor Deborah
Butterfield.
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A recurring theme in Buck’s
art is the solitary figure
that represents a universal
human spirit. Surrounded
by symbols of contemporary
society, Standing Figure
is anonymous, without head,
gender or personality. The
objects the figure supports
suggest the burdens each
person metaphorically
carries on his/her
shoulders. Each sign has
its own possible meaning.
For example, the stacking
forms could allude to the
modern urban environment
while the spiral form may
refer to a continuously
spreading and accelerating
increase in the world
population. Through his
art, Buck speaks to the
precarious balance between
man, nature and the survival
of the planet.
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Jesús
Bautista
Moroles
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American,
born 1950
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Interlocking
Columns.
n.d.
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Dakota
granite
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86 x 23 x 23
inches
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Collection
of Palm
Springs Art
Museum
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Gift of
Steve Chase
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A native of Texas, Jesús
Bautista Moroles received
his Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree from North Texas
State University, Denton, in
1978. In 1980, after a year
of studio work in Italy,
Moroles began making the
large sculptures for which
he is known.
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Moroles begins the sculpture
process by visiting quarries
in Italy, Spain, Canada, and
the United States. He
selects a massive slab of
granite, and while he may
draw a rough outline on the
rock, he never has a preset
plan. He believes that
every stone has its own
history and near the
sculpture’s completion,
Moroles says that it reveals
its “spirit.” Moroles wants
his artwork to be accessible
and encourages viewers to
interact with his
sculptures.
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Moroles enjoys the physical
demands of granite and his
works vary in size, texture,
and shape. Moroles said, “I
think that’s why I like
granite. Like concrete, it’s
here for good. If you look
down through history, the
things we have today that
are older than anything are
the stone sculptures of the
ancients. The granite will
be around forever. I like
that idea. I’m not making
them for now, I’m making
them forever.”
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Erwin Binder
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American,
1934-1993
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Maiz Goddess.
1987
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bronze,
edition 3/3
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66 x 47 x 17
inches
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Collection
of Palm
Springs Art
Museum
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Gift of
Erwin Binder
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Born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, Erwin Binder
attended Temple University
before entering the Air
Force in 1952. He was
stationed in New Mexico,
near the border of Mexico
where he studied Mexican
history, language and
culture.
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After his military service,
Binder worked as a jeweler
in a family jewelry business
for twenty years where he
learned casting techniques.
The experience of seeing
José Clemente Orozco’s
fresco The Elements
renewed his dedication to
the arts and inspired him to
attend Otis Art Institute in
Los Angeles.
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Binder developed his skill
as a sculptor working in
onyx, a translucent stone
that comes in a variety of
colors. This semiprecious
stone enabled Binder to
express himself in form,
volume and color.
Influenced by Auguste
Rodin's sculptures, Binder
experimented with images of
primal energy and humanistic
concerns.
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Creating “sensuous and
grotesque or graceful and
awkward” bronze and onyx
figures, Binder said that
his work represents a blend
of influences, with Mexican
culture predominating.
Binder's sculptures have
been linked with the modern
Mexican school because he
expresses great emotion in a
simple form.
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Betty Gold
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American,
born 1935
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Monumental
Holistic XIV.
1982
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automobile
enamel on
steel
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103 ½ x 106
½ x 81 ½
inches
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Collection
of Palm
Springs Art
Museum
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Gift of Mr.
and Mrs.
David
Chatkin
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Born and raised in Austin,
Texas, Betty Gold attended
the University of Texas
before moving to Colorado to
pursue a professional art
career. While in Aspen, Gold
met the head of a steel
manufacturing firm who
sponsored artists by
allowing them to use the
facilities to make steel
sculptures. This opportunity
launched Gold’s career as a
sculptor, and since her
relocation to Los Angeles in
1977, she has created
monumental sculptures that
have been installed in
public settings throughout
the world.
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Gold is a constructivist
sculptor who works in a
variety of metals such as
steel, bronze and copper.
Her exterior sculptures are
constructed from steel
sheets that are either
painted with automobile
enamel in primary colors, or
left in their raw state to
rust to a velvety patina. As
her works became larger in
scale, she began to conceive
them not as individual
pieces but in a series in
which a single idea could be
put through many different
transformations. The
Holistic Series are
monumental sculptures,
increasingly abstract with
solid, uncomplicated
geometrical planes. They are
based on refining the usage
of the square or rectangle
and its physical
relationship with space and
three dimensionality.
Through her knowledge of and
concern for geometric form,
Gold imparts
three-dimensional vitality
to pure colors and shapes.
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