I'm going to talk about large-scale
sculpture and public art through the
lens of the work fabricated at
Lippincott incorporated the company
founded by my father Donald Lippincott
and his business partner Roxanne Everett
who you see here in the office at the
shop in North Haven Connecticut fortune
for all of us Roxanne also created a
huge photo archive of over 10,000 images
documenting the sculptures they made
there and this fast and incredible
archive is the basis of the book
large-scale that I wrote about the early
years of the company when they started
out in 1966 Don and Roxanne saw a
growing interest among artists in
exploring large-scale sculpture in some
ways similar to the increase in the
scale of the work of the abstract
expressionist of the 1950s and 60s while
painters could create ever larger
canvases on their own an increase in
scale for sculptors meant exploring
industrial fabrication during the 60s
and 70s the government was more active
than ever before in buying and
commissioning public art with the
founding of the National Endowment for
the Arts in 1965 and the one percent for
art programs which dictated that one
percent of the budget for any new
building would be dedicated to
purchasing artwork an unprecedented
amount of funding was available for art
and public spaces the public was a very
important part of public art because I
think there was a real attempt a very
democratic idea during this time of
making art available to everyone to
bring it out of museums and off of
pedestals into the street and into
people's everyday experience
there were also a large number of public
shows in the late 60s and early 70s that
featured large-scale sculpture these
shows often tied in with attempts at
urban renewal at the time and were a way
to get people to visit the cities and
develop a greater feeling of connection
and civic pride death tailing all this
activity was the interest for sculptors
inciting work outdoors which was very
much related to the increase in the
scale of their work this is an aerial
view of the field next to the Lippincott
shop you can see all the sculptures on
display there and the shop building is
at the back left it's hard to remember
that in the early days of the company in
the mid 1960s large-scale modern
sculpture was not much in evidence there
was little new public art in cities most
museums and galleries did not have
adequate space to show larger sculptures
and collectors public or private
hesitated to Commission large-scale
projects based on drawings and small
models alone
Don Roxanne and the artists all felt
that the best way for people to
appreciate large-scale sculpture was to
see it in person and the field next to
the company was used as an open-air
exhibition space this offered
prospective buyers a chance to see these
sculptures realized and to develop an
understanding of their impact and
importance
Lippincott always welcomed visitors and
many students artists curators and
collectors came to see the work they're
usually several different artist
projects would be happening
simultaneously and in a way the shop
served as a group studio space far more
elaborate than any one artist could have
this is a view of the shop workspace
with several sculptures underway
including Claus open Berg's geometric
mouse at the front and George Sugarman's
trio at the back prior to the inception
of Lippincott if sculptors wanted to
create works of art larger than their
studios or their own metalworking
abilities allowed they had to work with
industrial manufacturers such as auto
body shops or boat builders the problem
with such working relationships was that
those companies were set up to
manufacture a specific product in an
established fashion not to work with an
artist on the more complex and typically
nonlinear creative process of making art
concerns about the unknowns of costs and
the problems of engineering and creating
artwork also discouraged many companies
from taking on these projects
Lippincott was able to address these
challenges and put the tools of
industrial fabrication at the disposal
of the artists it was the first and for
nearly a decade and a half the only
company of its kind this is Tony
Rosenthal's Alamo which was part of the
first show of large-scale sculpture in
New York City a show called sculpture
and environment that took place in the
fall of 1967
that's Rosenthal standing next to the
sculpture the day it was installed in
Astor Place this is the only piece which
stayed after the show ended and it's
become one of the landmarks of the city
if you lean on it hard enough it still
will spin this is Barnett Newman's
broken obelisk which was installed on
the plaza in front of the Seagram
building the great showplace for art
back in the day and had many sculptures
presented there over the years they were
ultimately three broken obelisk made
when is it the Museum of Modern Art here
in New York
when is it the bra
go Chapel in Houston Texas and one is at
the University of Washington in Seattle
these are two works by Robert Murray
which was shown in front of the Jewish
Museum as sculpture and part of
sculpture and environment that's
Athabasca on the left at the Jewish
Museum and ridgefield on the right at
the Lippincott shop before it went to
New York these are two works by Marisa
and the one on the left three figures
was shown near the plaza hotel during
sculpture and environment the one on the
right with Marisol is part of her own
private collection to give you some
background on the way that Don and
Roxanne started working with these
artists when they first began in 1966
they compiled the list of sculptures
they were most interested in working
with which they had created by going to
a lot of galleries and museums and
looking at different artists work the
first group included Marisol Clement
Mead Moore Robert Morris Robert Murray
Tony Rosenthal and James Rosati Roxanne
and Don wanted a group of artists whose
work was distinctly different from each
others and who had provide an
interesting range in terms of
fabrication and exhibition all of these
artists were already working sculptors
and some were painters and print makers
as well they had worked in carve stone
cast bronze and wood and summons
fabricated small works and steel as well
so there was quite a range of experience
coming into this they were each
interested in the possibilities of scale
and in what could be created in an
industrial setting this is James for
Saudis Lippincott one the sculptures
part of the Empire State collection in
Albany New York as I mentioned before
urban renewal often played a role in
these projects and the Rockefeller
government buildings were built as part
of the urban renewal in Albany I found a
great description of public art and a
catalog for a Rosati show which I think
sums up the aspirations of much of the
work of this time the curator said
simply put rose Audis hopes for his
public art or that it will be a positive
presence in the community causing people
to stop look return and enjoy people are
thereby confronted by something
addressed not to their practical needs
but their contemplative life
a poetic object in a prosaic environment
these next few sculptures are all part
of the Empire State collection this is
an untitled work by Forrest Myers that's
in with a model on the left with Don and
the finished work on the right
in the field of Lippincott this is
Ellsworth Kelly with yellow blue one of
his first sculptures at Lippincott in
1968 Kelly was well known for his
painting which he certainly continued
and sculpture now became a great
interest as well the 70s and 80s were an
incredibly prolific time for him and he
made nearly 100 sculptures at Lippincott
over the next few decades like the
paintings the sculptured explored very
precise shapes the earlier works were
painted and so had the perfect even
surface typical of his canvases but he
later explored works where the meta was
left unfinished and he's had much more
variety to the surface here's George
Sugarman's tria which was made in an
edition of - one of these is in Albany
and the other is at the linden sculpture
garden in Milwaukee you see some young
art enthusiasts here at Lippincott this
is a field trip for a local kindergarten
that's Ronald Leyden on the left with
Eddie geyser one of the crew and his
sculpture Cathedral evening Laden had
originally built this sculpture himself
out of wood for the show 14 sculptors
the industrial edge in 1969 and then the
commission from the Empire State
collection allowed it to be built and
steel here's an example of how the look
of a sculpture changes as you move
around it this is Clement Meade Morris
verge and Peter Versteeg another member
of the crew and this is also part of the
Empire State collection here's a piece
of another Mead more called Awakening
and I wanted to show you these photos so
you can see how the sculptures are
actually put together this piece was
going to Australia but even closer to
home many of the sculptures would travel
around to different shows and it was
always part of the plan in building them
to consider how they would travel most
of the sculptures were made in elements
that could be assembled and taken apart
relatively easily
so the sculpture could be moved from
place to place this series of photos was
part of a packet of instructions for the
Assembly in Melbourne since this was the
rare case of a sculpture not being
installed by the Lippincott crew for all
the sculptures made at Lippincott there
was always what was called the test
assembly where the finished piece was
put together so the artist could see it
and the crew could make decisions about
how to stage the installation at the
final site so here they're moving
everything to place in the field
fitting two of the elements together
here's a close-up of that you can see
the pins which make the corners in the
planes line up correctly and here's the
finished piece installed in Melbourne
here's another installation at the
Seagram building this is one of the
heads from Easter Island the World
Monuments fund had brought the head to
the United States to display as part of
fundraising efforts for restoration and
preservation work on the island this is
the original head here and Lippincott
cast the head and made an addition that
was sold to benefit the fund here are
two of the heads in the addition there
were quite a few of these around the
field for a few years that's done with
close Oldenburg you can see Oldenburg's
geometric mouse in the background and
forest myers untitled work for albany
claws Oldenburg's lipstick ascending on
caterpillar tracks during the first test
assembly at the shop that's Oldenburg
standing at the left this sculpture was
commissioned in secret by a group of
students and faculty at Yale and was
fabricated installed and delivered
without the university really knowing
what was going on the lipstick was
initially placed in by Niki Plaza and
later restored and recited in Morse
College typically work on a new
sculpture at the shop began with
discussions of the construction process
to establish the final size of the piece
the engineering issues and the building
materials usually an artist would arrive
with a model of some kind either
drawings or a small three-dimensional
object
that's George circum and on the right
with his model for st. Paul's sculpture
complex from these models the artist and
crew would create templates for each
element of the sculpture these templates
would be an exact tracing of each part
of the model and these were enlarged and
adjusted by the artist to make the
large-scale version here Sugarman is
redrawing one of the templates with some
elements of the finished sculpture
around him artists were always
encouraged to be directly involved in
the process at every stage to guide the
work and make adjustments or changes
were necessary typically they would
review the progress of a sculpture of
several times during fabrication the
proximity to New York City allowed
artists to make day trips as often as
they liked and some would come for
several days at a time while the
sculptures are being fabricated Sugarman
is working in the original show
building here which is a very simple
factory space with a dirt floor during
the time that this sculpture was being
fabricated a new shop building was built
adjacent to this one much bigger space
about 25,000 square feet with two cranes
built into the ceiling and large doors
that could be open for light and air as
well as to move the sculptures in and
out easily
so here in the new building this is the
test assembly of the Sugarman you can
see one of the crew on a ladder for a
sense of scale and here Sugarman being
interviewed underneath the sculpture
after it had been installed you can see
the spectacular color of the work here
to Louise Nevelson z-- working process
was the exception to the typical
scenario at the shop she often created
work directly at scale rather than
starting with a drawing or models
similar to her work in wood her metal
sculptures consisted of found elements
in this case culled from the collection
at the shop she worked with remarkable
intensity directing the welders and
assembling her work her pieces could be
quickly collage together with small
welds and then fully assembled after she
left she would usually work for three or
four days at a time and then returned a
couple of weeks later to revisit the
work and make changes or additions many
artists as well as many of the crew had
very long working relationships with
Lippincott so an artist could work with
the same welders on many projects over
time and this gave them a chance to
develop a real understanding of the
process and a shared language to discuss
it here's a great installation shot this
is a show of Clement Mead Moore's work
at the max Hutchinson gallery in
Manhattan that's Hutchinson's standing
on the gantry crane and meet more in the
center of the work the crane and hoist
allowed the crew to manipulate the
elements of the sculpture during the
assembly in this very tight space here's
probably the most recognizable image of
the era this was Robert Indiana's first
love sculpture this is part of the
collection of the Indianapolis Art
Museum this is during the fabrication
you can see some of the edges are
polished and some are still rough here's
the finished work
that's Indiana in the front row on the
left with Roxanne and the crew
Indiana explored many variations in
sculpture and painting working with
different sizes and colors that's Ralph
Ogden on the left he was the founder of
the storm King Art Centre and Dorothy
mayhaw who is the director of the museum
in the early 1970s there at the shop
lived on in front of trio and broken
obelisk Ogden had started storm king in
1960 with Peter Strahm he had collected
sculpture privately for some years but
the Storm King collection really began
when he purchased 13 works from David
Smith in 1967 which had displayed around
the main building Alton and Mae Hall had
come to the shop to see the sculptures
that were going to the Empire State
collection in Albany and to discuss
possible work for Storm King these next
few sculptures are all part of the Storm
King collection this is Isaac Witkin
with his sculpture kuhmo this is the
installation of an untitled work by
david von Schlegel this also looks like
some kind of a happening the square
element is made of aluminum and sits on
top of the four poles there are three of
these to the piece all installed in a
row you can see von Schlegel here
adjusting the first one a second in
progress and the poles of the third and
the distance this is the installation of
an untitled work by Robert Grosvenor
this is right next to the bunch legal at
storm King the central element of the
sculpture is being lifted on to its base
by the two cranes here's a view of the
piece before the side arms are attached
and here's an aerial view of the
completed gross nor on Van Schlegel this
clause Oldenburg's wayside drainpipe
which is sited at the top of the hill
near the museum building at Storm King
this is an idea Oldenburg explored in
drawings and soft sculpture as well
forest myers with four corners the first
time the piece was set up in the field
of Lippincott prior to going to storm
king robert maurice Keanu this is one of
the sculptures from the mid-70s where
you start to see Murray pushing the
possibilities of forming metal working
with ever more complex folds and curves
tal's Streeters endless column that's
the sculpture during the installation on
the left and the artists towel streeter
with Dorothea mayhaw on the right and
Louise Nevelson at the dedication of
City on the high mountain her sculpture
at Storm King this is Nevelson sky
covenant which is a commission from the
temple Israel in Boston the interiors of
the boxes were made individually and the
boxes are then bolted together to
assemble the completed sculpture the
worker at the lower left is grinding the
edges of one of the interior components
so they fit together properly here's the
installation at Temple Israel you see
the boxes and the way they stack up and
the finished sculpture the pieces set
out from the facade which creates a
beautiful play of light on the building
Ellsworth Kelly on the right at the shop
with curved - this piece was part of
Philip Johnson's collection at the Glass
House and later given to the Museum of
Modern Art Kelly again looking at curved
one these sculptures were part of his
retrospective at the Museum of Modern
Art in 1973 he and Don are standing here
into one of the two massive doors to the
shop these doors will add a great deal
of light into the work space and
sculptures were often set up here for
temporary viewing - more by Kelly these
are steel a-one and two which were part
of his own private collection for many
years though they now have both been
promised in museums
these are shown near his studio in
upstate New York
Kelly would often make groups of
sculptures exploring certain ideas and
shapes in much the same way that he made
his paintings close Oldenburg standing
mitt with ball from 1973 the photo on
the left was taken during the
fabrication you can see the ragged edges
of the LED interior of the sculpture
these will be trimmed away as the piece
is completed Oldenburg is speaking with
Agnes gun who commissioned this piece
and that's the finished work on the
right robert maurice quinnipiac which
was commissioned by the University of
Massachusetts and Amherst
that's Marie second from the right with
Don and the crew during the test
assembly at the shop this sculpture was
the centerpiece of a show called artist
and fabricator which was shown in and
around the Fine Arts Center at the UMass
campus
and focused on the working process of
the artists at Lippincott back of the
secret building this is Jean Dubuffet is
Millard Lamar here you see the sculpture
being moved off the truck by crane
looking like it's flying into the space
and being positioned on the plaza as
always a huge crowd has gathered to
watch the performance I'm not sure if it
was this installation or another one but
my father told me one time a street
musician showed up with steel drums and
played music all afternoon where they
were working so it really was quite a
show this is a fountain by David Van
Schlegel called voyage of Ulysses the
Lippincott crew set up a huge water tank
with a pump outside the shop building
and varnish Lagos testing the angle of
the water on the sculpture to see how it
moves across the surface
here's voyage of Ulysses installed in
Philadelphia as you move around the
sculpture you can see references to the
form of ships and sails and waves this
is the start of George Sugarman's
Baltimore federal met sugar Oh sugar man
at the shop with his model on the left
and watching the fabrication on the
right he showed his photos really show
the interaction of the artist to the
model and the large-scale work and
watching it all come into being
Sugarman conceived of the sculpture as a
collection have covered an open seating
areas inviting people to enjoy the
public space in front of the courthouse
here's an aerial view of the work this
seems like a very painterly sculpture
the shapes of color are like
brushstrokes a sort of painting in space
which is saying that Sugarman explored a
great deal in his work another sort of
painterly sculpture this is Robert
Maurice Taku which has a bit of the
feeling of one of the massive abstract
expressionist canvases
this is the largest of the large-scale
projects this is Klaus Oldenburg and
Kosovan Brogan's back column this is
about halfway through the fabrication
process and eventually the sculpture
would stretch across the entire workroom
here's the bat column loaded onto the
truck to take it to Chicago
that's Kosovan Brogan Oldenburg's wife
and collaborator on the left with Eddie
Gaza and some members of the crew the
children left-to-right army in the
pointy hat during a bit of early
research with my brother Jeff and our
friend Matt we were all allowed to skip
school to watch the back Holland off to
Chicago which was very exciting and I'm
gonna finish up with two more works by
Robert Murray Saginaw on the left and
Hillary on the right it's interesting to
think back a much of the sculpture of
the mid-60s which tended to be minimal
solid and geometric and then to look at
the visual lightness of these forms they
have the feeling of volumes in motion
you can see there's a real exploration
happening in the possibilities of
industrial fabrication the equipment at
the Lippincott shop was standard issue
for fabrication shops but the
experimentation with these machines led
by Murray and some of the other artists
resulted in a remarkable range of non
geometric forms
it wasn't the newness of the technology
that made the sculptures fabricated at
Lippincott so remarkable but the new and
creative ideas from the artists about
how to put it to work so I'm going to
stop there and I'll happy to happy to
answer any questions and if there's
books around I'll sign those afterwards
thanks very much
ah no pretty much excuse me pretty much
exclusively in meadow the Easter Island
heads were their only sort of foray into
concrete
and really the only casting they did it
was a cold metal shop
but if artists were interested in other
materials or needed elements that
Marisol I showed earlier the faces of
those were cast elsewhere and
Oldenburg's met with ball the ball was
made out of wood by a woodworker so for
the most part they just did metal but
they would subcontract out other pieces
if they needed them no I don't think so
they were just on the building side of
things I'm not always sure the artists
group many of the rewards by the time
was all over yeah well it's interesting
looking back sort of how things evolve
over time definitely right most of the
the forming was done with a brake press
and with a roller and oftentimes
actually let me just go back one slack
is either kind of a perfect example the
forming is all done with the brake press
and the roller but often times what you
see here looking like one curve would
actually be made in several pieces so a
piece of metal could be taken apart and
made into the curves and then
reassembled so it was sort of a
combination of forming an
to create the more elaborate curves with
Meade Morris work as well there were
sort of a combination of those two
things it was different ways of using
the machinery and of combining elements
to make those things happen he didn't
ever work with Lippincott I believe he
actually did do most of his work himself
but I'm not I'm not totally sure that's
sort of another kind of forming I think
he was also using the press and other
kinds of sort of compression machinery
oh yes yes there was an engineer Robert
Jennings who worked with a company who
continues to work with a company now but
who worked with them right from the
beginning and that was also a piece of
certainly some of the larger sculptures
that was in part of that process to
figure out