New Ninth #2
Artist: Christopher Wilmarth (American, 1943-1987)
Date: 1981
Dimensions:
H: 38 1/4 in. (97.2 cm); W: 31 7/8 in. (81 cm); Depth: 7 1/4 in. (18.4 cm)
Medium: Plate glass, steel.
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1982.1
Label Text:"Light gains character as it touches the world, from what is lighted and who is there to see . . . My sculptures are places to generate this experience compressed into light and shadow and return them to the world as a physical poem."
New Ninth #2 has a visual impact of extreme delicacy. By brushing acid on glass, Wilmarth has etched a soft, irregular, painterly surface. Changes in light, as well as movement of the viewer, yield a range of greens in this normally reflective material, with its transparency now clouded while its translucency has been preserved.
The dark, unpolished steel plate behind the glass acts both as physical support and dynamic contrast. Bent back at the top, the heavy metal dominates where it touches the fragile and luminous glass, which rests on a small lip at the bottom. Steel cable serves a similar dual purpose. Binding the two hard materials together, the cable becomes a form of drawing that both defies and reveals the pull of gravity.
New Ninth #2 has a visual impact of extreme delicacy. By brushing acid on glass, Wilmarth has etched a soft, irregular, painterly surface. Changes in light, as well as movement of the viewer, yield a range of greens in this normally reflective material, with its transparency now clouded while its translucency has been preserved.
The dark, unpolished steel plate behind the glass acts both as physical support and dynamic contrast. Bent back at the top, the heavy metal dominates where it touches the fragile and luminous glass, which rests on a small lip at the bottom. Steel cable serves a similar dual purpose. Binding the two hard materials together, the cable becomes a form of drawing that both defies and reveals the pull of gravity.
Not on view
In Collection(s)