 | "Meditation" from the exhibition at Jonathan Edwards College, which features 18 sculptures by George R. Anthonisen that capture both the joy and suffering of the human experience. |
An exhibition of sculptures that both capture some of humanity's dismal failures and reveal the artist's optimism about the future is on view through Nov. 20 on the patio of the Jonathan Edwards College (JE) master's house, 70 High St.
"The Sculpture of George R. Anthonisen" features 18 works by the celebrated Bucks County sculptor, who turned 70 this summer. The retrospective show includes some of Anthonisen's earliest works, created 40 years ago, to one of his most recent sculptures.
Anthonisen's sculptures have chronicled the history of humanity, from its creation through wars, the civil rights movement and more recent challenges. His public works are in the permanent collections of the U.S. Capitol, Hall of Columns; World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland; New York's Carnegie Hall, and more than two dozen other sites.
"The artist seems to say that art exists to make the world more beautiful, that it tests our capacities for thinking and feeling, and that, most importantly, it challenges us to empathize with a world that exists around us, with people who have experienced sufferings and joys we will never know," writes John Zarobell, associate curator of European painting and sculpture before 1900 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum, in the catalogue accompanying the JE exhibition. "Anthonisen's art is to make people look at each other and see themselves."
Zarobell will speak about the artist and his work at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12, in the JE master's house. The event is free, and the public is invited. The show opened on Sept. 14 with a talk by Lisa Tremper Hanover, director of the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College.
The sculptures in the JE show are all classical in style, but divergent in their message. "I Set Before You This Day" illustrates the difficult choices communities faced during the Holocaust, while "Game Over" foreshadows the current drug crisis in professional sports. Several pieces, such as "Sunnyside Up" and "Meditation," celebrate the natural beauty of the human body. The most recent sculpture, "Wedding," uses a contemporary nuptial celebration to depict the assimilation of many races, lifestyles and attitudes.
"We hear that the human family is falling apart," says Anthonisen. "We know the pressures of our time and of history. Our reactions are an accumulative process, much like my sculptures. Even in the most dire circumstance, there is hope."
"The Sculpture of George R. Anthonisen" is just the first of several exhibitions that will be presented at the Yale residential college during the 2006-2007 academic year, says Gary Haller, the Becton Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and master of JE.
"We believe that Yale students learn as much outside of the classroom as in, and much of that learning takes place in the residential colleges in the conversations between students," says Haller. "As college masters, we strive to stimulate that out-of-classroom learning, and one way I do that is by mounting small exhibitions and inviting students to view and talk about them."
The JE show has also been an enlightening experience for the artist himself. "I had been thinking that my career was beginning to wind down," Anthonisen recently confessed. "The exhibition at Yale is a new opening -- I am dealing with getting old and getting young at the same time."
"The Sculpture of George R. Anthonisen" is open to the public for viewing most days via the courtyard to the master's house patio or by appointment at (203) 432-0356.
T H I S
Sculptor featured in JE show
chronicles the history of humanity
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