A wonderful tale bronze

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on August 12, 2017 at 8:50pm

Curator’s Comments: 

 

A Wonderful Tale (Bronze) appeared randomly today as I perused the site, and held my attention. I responded to the shifts in surfaces between the smooth and rough skin.  While the subject is a Classical and obvious mermaid, there is some ambiguity to the form, and interesting suspension in the weight of the sculpture.  The figure appears to sit back and pull away slightly from the viewer as if she was perched on a rock shelf or rising wave.  The dramatic curve and twist of her finned tail also offsets the downward cast position of her gaze.  I also appreciate that the greenish patina appears more accentuated in her upper body, segmenting her form just as the sinuous counter curves in the base anchor her visually. Looking at the adjacent works in your portfolio, I was reminded of my intense admiration of the carved alabaster piece Sanctum Sanctorum. I see that it actually shares some formal concerns with A Wonderful Tale, as it plays contrasting surfaces against one another.  Both sculptures present fantastically constructed forms that reside along the edges of our collective imaginations and shared mythology.