Sculpture Milwaukee, everyone’s favorite free outdoor sculpture installation, has begun hosting a series of Wednesday-evening lectures in the Pfister’s Rouge Ballroom.
Last week saw activist and author Dasha Kelly talking about Sanford Bigger’s 2017 sculpture, BAM (Seated Warrior).
This week, Susan Longhenry – the director of the Haggerty Museum of Art – will discuss Liz Glynn’s Untitled (Burgher with Extended Arm), 2014, talking about the artist’s creative process and relationship with the famed French sculptor Auguste Rodin.
Like Rodin, Glynn often explores notions of fragmentation and isolation in her work. To complete this sculpture, she literally had casts made of Rodin’s acclaimed The Burghers of Calais. Then she took the pieces apart and put them back together in a different way to create a wholly original, contemporary sculpture.
According to a description of the piece on Sculpture Milwaukee’s website, Glynn “cannibalizes one of the 19th and 20th century’s leading sculptors, using his own working processes to make the old contemporary again. She provides contemporary footnotes to Rodin’s casting process, reminding us that his work has been cobbled together with limbs cast during his life, and by his estate after his death. Glynn reminds us that Rodin himself questioned the myth of a singular image emerging from a singular (male) genius, undermining the very foundations of modernism.”
Longhenry’s discussion begins at 6 p.m., though guests are encouraged to gather in the Pfister’s lobby for a cash bar as early as 5:30 p.m. And they may stay after to take a guided stroll through the sculptural installation. RSVP online in advance.
This year’s iteration of Sculpture Milwaukee, which features 21 sculptures by 22 artists, will remain on view along Wisconsin Avenue through Oct. 21.
