What’s Next: A Medium Less Rare

Rebecca Warren Anish Kapoor Half of Gagosian Sales Are to Russia, Says Director Deimantas Narkevicius Wins 2008 Vincent Award Design Unveiled for Herzog & de Meuron Tribeca Tower The Week That Was (September 5 – 12, 2008) Back to School Gagosian Plans Moscow Show in Former Chocolate Factory

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Soon, almost anything that wasn’t a painting hanging on a wall was referred to as sculpture. It was a hot category, sure, but the classic, three-dimensional standing object got lost in the shuffle.

Now, with traditional formal values making a comeback, figures and singular forms are again in vogue. The best artists are subtly balancing volume and mass, and they are again creating surfaces that can be dramatically lit.

The markets for sculptural titans John Chamberlain and Mark di Suvero are heating up, perhaps signaling that both are overdue for major retrospectives.

At Sotheby’s November sales, Chamberlain’s Fiddler’s Foot (1978) carried a low estimate of $350,000; then, in a supercharged salesroom, it went for $744,000. With shows scheduled for 2007–08 at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, Millennium Park in Chicago and galleries all over the world, di Suvero should be in the spotlight for years to come.

Recently three monumental public sculptures in Chicago, London and New York have given Anish Kapoor the attention he has long deserved. His earlier, smaller works—equally bold and dashing—are breaking records. An untitled alabaster work sold for $2.56 million at Sotheby’s in November, despite a paltry estimate of $350,000 to $450,000.

In addition to his works in wood and metal, Richard Deacon makes large, ungainly ceramics with unusual geometries, Mae West volumes and unnatural colors. With shows at the Tate in London and the Brancusi Studio at the Centre Pompidou in Paris under his belt, he is leaving his mark in the art world.

Crossover artists include ceramist Ken Price. Working in a variety of sizes, he creates full volumes with interesting and colorful surfaces. Museums ranging from MoMA to the Art Institute of Chicago have lately been adding his works to their collections, while his prices have been skyrocketing. They’ve tripled since he joined the stable at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York and are expected to rise further.

Among a younger generation, the Turner Prize-nominee Rebecca Warren and the Brooklyn-based Rachel Harrison are raising the bar. Warren makes ungainly, preposterous figures from unfired clay. Viewers will want to look twice: They have much in common with her race of lumpen creatures.

As for Harrison, she engages us with mixed-media creations that are provocative, dramatic and original. Looking at her work from many vantage points, viewers will find that she integrates photographs and kitsch figurines.

Like her colleagues in this ancient pursuit, Harrison has one foot anchored in the past and the other stretched toward the future.

“What’s Next: A Medium Less Rare” was originally published in the January 2007 issue of Art + Auction Magazine.