Skip to main content
Filter artworksArtworks
Close

Select a category:

  • Painting
  • Sculpture
  • Photography
  • Works on paper
Filter by keyword
Width range
- inches
Height range
- inches
Filters

Date

Edition

Medium

Nationality

Style

Price range
$
-
$
19th, 20th, 21st Century Art
Taylor Graham
American and European Art
Search submit
Enquiry list
0 items
Send enquiry

Enquiry list

This artwork has been saved in your enquiry list. You can either review your list and make an enquiry, or continue to browse and find other artworks.
View enquiry list
Continue browsing
Menu
  • Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Paintings
  • Sculpture
  • Photography
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Notable sales
  • Transport
  • Corporate art
  • Contact

Sculptures

Merce
Merce
Merce
Merce
Merce, 1990
Robert Cook
Bronze with a brown and polished bronze patina mounted on a Roman Travertine base
10 1/2 H x 39 W x 6 D inches
Signed: R. COOK
Add to enquiry list
Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
Previous
|
Next
67 
of 169
artist Description provenance

artist

Fluid, dynamic, and energetic best describe the work of American sculptor Robert Cook. Cook’s impressive ability to capture motion in his bronze forms is created by lost wax casting, or cire perdue. This distinctive and intricate technique is translated into aesthetically captivating and mind-provoking sculptures. 

 

The New York Times critic Stuart Preston once claimed,

“Cleverness and absolute assurance of technique and overall design identify Robert Cook’s new semi-abstract metal sculpture. He tackles the kind of subject matter, massed figures and animals in motion, that would seem to be intractable to a sculptural treatment. He succeeds in this attempt by re-introducing subjects to skeletal lines of force, somewhat in the manner of futurism”.

 

The exhibition will feature twenty-one of Robert Cook’s most intriguing works. Among them are Gaiety, whose lively and spirited forms create positive and negative space and almost mimic a graceful, choreographed dance; Pan 1, a portrayal of the purely natural interaction of human and animal in a circular shape that reflects the cycles of life and death; Five Senses, which further embodies the theme of “Circles and Cycles” in Cook’s work and has a mythological and even eerie presence; and finally Virasat Curved, which demonstrates a juxtaposition between the inherently fluid essence of movement and its physical translation into geometric, rigid body structures that are fixed in time. These four sculptures alone reveal the true versatility of Cook’s work, not only in terms of size and subject matter, but also with regards to his unique and cerebral artistic rhetoric.

 

Over the years Robert Cook’s innovative mind and skillful practice have allowed him to forge a successful lifetime career in the world of sculpture. He has studied in Boston, Paris, and Rome, and boasts an impressive list of achievements, such as grants from the Tiffany Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Fulbright Commission. Cook’s work has been widely exhibited across the globe, both in similar one-man shows and in public spaces as well. Dinoceras, for example, was first installed in 1971 in a Park Avenue plaza in New York City. Striking and massive, the 20-foot-long sculpture has a commanding presence and demonstrates Cook’s signature forms, which are enveloped in a flowing movement that is both sophisticated and primitive.

Description

Robert Cook was always fascinated by the beauty created from dance.  He has sculpted several pieces dedicated to dance.  After seeing his first Merce Cunningham performance, Cook knew that he had to translate the dance into sculpture.  Merce is known for extending the frontiers of choreography by combining several forms of dance into his shows.  Cook identified with the smooth flow of the dance and depicts that in Merce.  Cook combines the different movements of the dance into one sculpture to represent the feeling of one complete motion. 

provenance

Studio of the Artist

New York

5 East 82nd Street

New York, NY 10028

 

203.216.3088

646.422.7884

 

Monday - Thursday

9am - 5pm

And by Appointment

Port Chester

168 Irving Avenue

Suite 301B

Port Chester, NY 10573

 

914.937.2070

 

By Appointment

Send an email
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Copyright © 2021 Taylor Graham
Site by Artlogic

NEW YORK

5 East 82nd Street, New York, NY 10028 203.216.3088 - 646.422.7884 info@taylorandgraham.com
Monday - Thursday, 9am - 5pm, And by Appointment

PORT CHESTER

168 Irving Avenue, Suite 301B Port Chester, NY 10573 914.937.2070
By Appointment