For the past two decades, contemporary Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa has been investigating the intimate interconnection between nature and culture through large-scale sculptures and installations that incorporate light, sound, and text in transparent, often interactive structures. The most prominent of these in the United States is the incredible Crown Fountain at Millenium Park in Chicago, two fifty-foot-tall glass block towers projecting the faces of ordinary Chicagoans and occasionally showering the viewers below with water. Like this ingenious update on the tradition of the public fountain, many of Plensa’s sculptures invite the viewer’s participation and offer physically engaging, sensorial encounters. Although his work has been collected by museums and private individuals, and has been exhibited in numerous European institutions, it has had relatively little exposure in the U.S.
The scholarly essay by Nasher Curator Jed Morse, contextualizes Plensa’s work for an American audience. Also included in the catalogue are color plate images for all of the works in the exhibition – eight large-scale works and installations, completed between 2004 and 2009 that highlight Plensa’s central line of investigation over the past fifteen years; as well as an exhibition checklist, and bibliography on the artist.
Details
Author: Jed Morse; Foreword by Jeremy Strick.
© 2010 Nasher Sculpture Center.
Approx. 12 X 9 X .38 in. | 104 pages.
60 color, 13 black and white illustrations.
Cover: 2-color printed matte textured paper.
Jacket: 4-color printed matte paper.
ISBN: 978-0-9741221-4-4