Arlene Shechet

Arlene Shechet (born 1951) is an American artist known for her inventive approach to sculpture.[1][2][3] Her work is often described as polymorphous, combining materials, styles and finishes in unconventional ways.[2][4][5][6] Of particular note is her extensive use of fired clay as a sculptural medium, as porcelain and ceramic have a long history of exclusion in contemporary art due to their association with practical and decorative objects.[3][7]

Arlene Shechet
Shechet in 2018
Born1951
New York City, U.S.
Education
Known forSculpture, installation, public art, paper works
SpouseMark Epstein
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Joan Mitchell Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy of Design
WebsiteArlene Shechet

Shechet has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, Anonymous Was A Woman Award and Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, among other recognition.[8][9][10] Her work belongs to the public collections of museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[11] Centre Pompidou,[12] Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[13] Whitney Museum[14] and National Gallery of Art.[15]

She lives and works in New York City and the nearby Hudson Valley.[16]

Life and career

Shechet was born in 1951 in New York City.[16] She earned a BA from New York University and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1978.[16] After graduating, she taught at RISD from 1978 to 1985 and at Parsons School of Design from 1984 to 1995.[17] In the early 2000s she began receiving attention[18][19] for sculpture exploring diverse materials and themes of flux, growth, enlightenment and Buddhism,[20][21][22] as well as for handmade paper works that she manipulated like clay.[23][24]

Wider recognition came with museum exhibitions of her assemblage work with clay.[25][26] These included solo shows at the Tang Museum (2009),[27] Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2009),[28] Weatherspoon Art Museum (2013),[16] RISD Museum (2014),[29] and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2015, twenty-year survey).[30] In that show's New York Times review, Holland Cotter wrote that Shechet's career "has encompassed both more or less traditional ceramic pots and wildly experimental abstract forms: amoebalike, intestinal, spiky, sexual, historically referential and often displayed on fantastically inventive pedestals … Taken together, this is some of the most imaginative American sculpture of the past 20 years."[1]

Arlene Shechet, Moon in the Morning, glazed ceramic, painted and dyed hardwood, powder coated steel, 75" x 44" x 37", 2022.

In installations at the Frick Collection (2016), Phillips Collection (2016) and Harvard Art Museums (2022), Shechet curated historical works from those collections and paired them with her own sculpture.[31][32][33][34] For example, one pairing at the Frick had a lotus-inspired Meissen porcelain bowl from 1730 appearing to hover over a rougher object that Shechet cast from the outside of the bowl's original mold.[31][32] The show—the Frick's first of a living artist in depth—was a result of Shechet's many months working closely with artisans in a Meissen studio.[31][32]

In addition to museum exhibitions, Shechet has shown at Pace Gallery (2020, 2022)[35][36] and Vielmetter Los Angeles (2019, 2022),[2][37] and earlier, at Jack Shainman (2010) and Sikkema Jenkins & Co. (2013–16) in New York, among others.[38][6][39] She also curated shows at the Drawing Center and Pace.[40][41]

Work

Shechet is best known for her assemblage-style sculpture involving—among other materials—ceramic, steel, concrete, wood and paint (e.g., Moon in the Morning, 2022).[2] The works tend, to varying degrees, to be figurative—incorporating human-associated forms and objects—and are often life-sized in scale.[36][3] She employs architectural methods and materials in her work, juxtaposing them with biomorphic forms and unusual, finely worked finishes.[3][2][4][5] In her review of Shechet's 2019 Vielmetter show, Los Angeles Times critic Leah Ollman described the approach as "architectural order meets a sort of bodily disorder."[2]

Entropy and humor are common themes in Shechet's pieces.[36][4][7] They frequently evoke perceptions of movement, particularly involving balance and its potential loss.[42][43] For example, her 2013 show, "Slip," included a biomorphic piece (No Noise, 2013) that seemed upended, as though it had slipped on a banana peel.[43] The concepts of movement and balance also appear metaphorically in the work.[31][7]

Arlene Shechet, No Noise, glazed ceramic on painted wood base, 67" × 17" × 14", 2013.

Critics frequently note a contrast between the organic and spontaneous character of Shechet's sculptures and the technical skill needed to produce them.[2][7][3] Clay undergoes several stages of shaping and drying before being fired in Shechet's walk-in kiln.[36][42] Hardwood is carved with heavy machinery and often prepared in advance with years of weathering on her property, which creates fissures and insect tracts that the artist fills or employs compositionally.[7][4] Paint and glaze effects are chosen from a series of samples that Shechet developed methodically in tests.[42]

Shechet's work is often heavily referential, communicating its position both within and outside the art historical context and the broader culture.[2][1][6][3] In 2018, when the sculptor was commissioned to create a public art installation at Madison Square Park, she named it Full Steam Ahead in reference to the park's Admiral Farragut naval monument, which sat across from her chosen site. Farragut's statue is seen by some as a symbol of the male domination historically prevalent in both art and society, and somewhat controversially, Shechet negotiated with park officials to empty the pool of water in front of the sculpture, effectively disempowering it.[7] Similarly, the works in Shechet's "Slip" exhibition projected for Hyperallergic critic Thomas Micchelli "a kind of populist formalism" that gave a nod to modernist sculpture while also subverting it, in effect providing "a fertile alternative to the formal progressivism that took over critical thinking in the postwar period."[5]

Influences to Shechet's work are seen as wide ranging and include Peter Voulkos, Ken Price, Elie Nadelman, Constantin Brancusi and Auguste Rodin.[2][3][42]

Awards and collections

Shechet has received a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship (2004),[8] awards from Anonymous Was A Woman (2010), the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2011) and College Art Association (2016),[9][44][45] and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Dieu Donné Papermill, Joan Mitchell Foundation and VIA Art Fund, among others.[16][24][10][46] She is an inductee of the National Academy of Design (2016) and American Arts and Letters Award (2023).[47][48]

Shechet's work belongs to the public collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales,[49] Blanton Museum of Art,[50] Brooklyn Museum,[51] Centre Pompidou,[12] Harvard Art Museums,[52] Hirshhorn Museum,[53] Institute of Contemporary Art Boston,[54] The Jewish Museum,[55] Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[13] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[11] Museum of Arts and Design,[56] Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg,[57] Nasher Sculpture Center,[58] National Gallery of Art,[15] Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[59] The Phillips Collection,[60] Rhode Island School of Design Museum,[61] San Jose Museum of Art,[62] US Department of State,[63] Walker Art Center,[64] and Whitney Museum, among others.[14]

References
  1. Cotter, Holland. "Arlene Shechet Has a First Museum Retrospective in Boston." The New York Times, July 19, 2015. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  2. Ollman, Leah. “Arlene Shechet's new sculptures are weirdly engrossing and crazy fresh,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  3. Rapaport, Brooke Kamin. "Body-To-Body Experience," Sculpture Magazine, June 2016, p. 30–35. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  4. Murtha, Chris. "Arlene Shechet," Artforum, October 28, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  5. Micchelli, Thomas. "Parallel Strains: Arlene Shechet's Ceramic Abstractions," Hyperallergic, October 19, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  6. Smith, Roberta. "Arlene Shechet: 'Slip,'" The New York Times, November 8, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  7. Loos, Ted. Loos, Ted. “Porcelain Finds Its Outside Voice," The New York Times, September 23, 2018. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  8. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Arlene Shechet, Fellows. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  9. Anonymous Was A Woman Award. Recipients. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  10. Joan Mitchell Foundation. Arlene Shechet, Fellows. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  11. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Seeing Is Believing, Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  12. Centre Pompidou. Arlene Shechet, Artists. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  13. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Eye Level, Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  14. Whitney Museum of American Art. Arlene Shechet, Artists. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  15. National Gallery of Art. Arlene Shechet, Twin Rockers, 2007, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  16. Art 21. Arlene Shechet, Artists. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  17. Ceramics Now. "Arlene Shechet." Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  18. The New York Times. "Minister Wants Artwork Revised or Removed," June 23, 2001, p. B7. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  19. Koplos, Janet. "Arlene Shechet at A/D," Art in America, January 2002, p. 109–10.
  20. Johnson, Ken. "Arlene Shechet," The New York Times, May 3, 2002, p. E40. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  21. Temin, Christine. "Perspectives: Assorted Artists Capture 'Rapture,'" Boston Globe, February 2, 2000, p. D1.
  22. Forster, Ian. "Arlene Shechet Sculpts Time," Art21, June 29, 2015. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  23. Harrison, Helen A. "Recycling Paper: Not Just Good for the Environment," The New York Times, January 5, 2003. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  24. Abruzzo, James and Mina Takahashi. "Chairman and Director's Messages," Dieu Donné Papermill. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  25. Howe, Liz. "Arlene Shechet: Working on the Edge," Ceramics Monthly, December 2010.
  26. Smith, Roberta. "Crucible of Creativity, Stoking Earth Into Art," The New York Times, March 19, 2009. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  27. Berry, Ian. Arlene Shechet: Blow by Blow, Saratoga Springs, NY: Tang Museum, 2009.
  28. MacMillan, Kyle. "MCA exhibits showcase big names, big ambitions from Big Apple," Denver Post, November 22, 2009.
  29. Walsh, Brienne. "The Alchemist: Arlene Shechet Converts 'White Gold' Into Artworks," Art in America, January 27, 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  30. Sheets, Hilarie M. "As the Art World Swoons over Playful Ceramics, Arlene Shechet Hits Her Stride," Artsy, June 9, 2015. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  31. Scott, Andrea K. "Porcelain, No Simple Matter: Arlene Shechet and the Arnhold Collection," The New Yorker, June 27, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  32. Dailey, Meghan. "Contemporary Ceramics, Up Against 18th-Century Pieces — Literally." The New York Times, May 24, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  33. The Phillips Collection. "Intersections: Arlene Shechet – From Here On Now." Events, October 19, 2016. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  34. Harvard Art Museums. "Disrupt the View: Arlene Shechet at the Harvard Art Museums," Exhibitions, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  35. Greenberger, Alex. "Arlene Shechet Joins Pace Gallery," ARTnews, March 6, 2018. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  36. Hambleton, Merrell. "Arlene Shechet Creates Beauty Out of Chaos," The New York Times, February 27, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  37. Taft, Catherine. "Arlene Shechet," Artforum, June 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  38. Rooney, Kara. "Arlene Shechet: The Sound of It," The Brooklyn Rail, November 2010. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  39. Heinrich, Will. "Arlene Shechet: Turn Up the Bass," The New York Times, October 20, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  40. Smith, Roberta. "Drawing, a Cure for the January Blahs," The New York Times, January 20, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  41. Gural, Natasha. "Arlene Shechet Creates Sculpture To Transform Hudson Valley Landscape, Curates ‘STUFF’ At Pace Gallery To Transcend Art History," Forbes, August 5 , 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  42. Hirsch, Faye. “Buckle and Flow," Art in America, January 2012, p. 58–64. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  43. The New Yorker. "Arlene Shechet," November 4, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  44. American Academy of Arts and Letters. "2011 Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts," Exhibition. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  45. Greenberger, Alex. "Carmen Herrera, Rosalind Krauss, Arlene Shechet Among Winners of 2016 CAA Awards," ARTnews, January 5, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  46. VIA Art Fund. "VIA Art Fund Awards $1 Million in Grants in 2021," News, 2021.
  47. Reizman, Renée. "Arlene Shechet's Gestures and Jesters," NAD Journal, May 1, 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  48. American Academy of Arts and Letters. "2023 Newly Elected Members," News, February 21, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  49. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Beginning now, Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  50. Blanton Museum of Art. One and Only, Arlene Shechet, Objects. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  51. Brooklyn Museum. From the "Flow Blue Series," Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  52. Harvard Art Museums. Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  53. Hirshhorn Museum. Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  54. Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Arlene Shechet, Essential Head, Art. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  55. The Jewish Museum. Arlene Shechet, Travel Light, Art. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  56. Museum of Arts and Design. "Museum of Arts and Design Collection Exhibition Highlights Craft's Advancements from 1950s to Today." Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  57. Tampa Bay Newspapers. "MFA presents Marks Made: Prints by American Women Artists," October 11, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  58. Nasher Sculpture Center. "Nasher Sculpture Center Announces Recent Gifted Acquisitions," October 15, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  59. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Seems Like Spring, Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  60. The Phillips Collection. The Possibility of Ghosts, Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  61. Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  62. San Jose Museum of Art. Together: Pacific Time: 5 a.m., Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  63. Art in Embassies, US Department of State. Arlene Shechet, Artists. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  64. Walker Art Center. Arlene Shechet, Collection. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
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