Connections in Collections

February 10 – April 15, 2020
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Wallach Study Center for Art & Architecture, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library

Warrior I
Seymour Lipton (1903-1986), Warrior I, 1948, sheet-lead, steel, and plaster, H. 27 1/4 x W. 16 x D. 13 in. (69.3 x 40.1 x 30.3 cm), Art Properties, Avery Library, Columbia University, Gift of the Lipton Estate (2016.20).

Now open in Avery Library’s Wallach Study Center for Art and Architecture is the new exhibition “Connections in Collections: Modern and Contemporary Art and Architecture.” Co-curated by Roberto C. Ferrari (Curator of Art Properties) and Chris Sala (Architecture Librarian), this exhibition brings together a selection of sculptures—recent acquisitions in the University’s permanent art collection stewarded by Art Properties—and connects them with images from architecture books in Avery Library’s research collection. 

 

These connections in Avery’s collections may not immediately seem obvious, and at times may even seem surprising. They encompass an array of ideas: structure and symbolism; color and materiality; geometry and organic forms. This was part of the curatorial goal: to think of ways in which these works of art and examples of architecture transcend their own intrinsic natures. Some of the books on view can even be seen as architectural or sculptural objects. There are no determined answers, only interesting observations, and viewers are encouraged to draw their own connections between the works on view.

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