Mid 20th Century roy gussow, Stainless Steel Sculpture "Two Forms" By Roy Gussow 1970

Details

Description

Polished stainless steel abstract sculpture, "Two Forms" by Roy Gussow (American, 1918-2011), marked and dated with coin seal inlaid to … Read more Polished stainless steel abstract sculpture, "Two Forms" by Roy Gussow (American, 1918-2011), marked and dated with coin seal inlaid to marble base. Similar to his "Three Forms".
New Yorkers passing by the Family Court building at Lafayette and Leonard Streets in Lower Manhattan may not have known Gussow’s name, but they were probably struck by Three Forms, his eight-foot-high sculpture on a two-foot granite base. (The sculpture had stood outside the courthouse since 1974 but was recently taken down for renovation.)

The work is a blend of three distinct flowing shapes. What is striking about it––as with many of Gussow’s sculptures––is its mirrorlike finish, which casts reflections from all directions as the spectator moves around it.

“I strive for lyrical equilibrium among distinctly different elements, and I like to think I am suggesting optimism, beauty and well-being,” Gussow said of Three Forms––as he could have said of most of his work.

Large-scale pieces by Gussow stand in more than a dozen cities, including outside the Civic Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Xerox building in Rochester, New York, and insurance company buildings in Hartford, and on the campus of North Carolina State University.Mr. Gussow’s smaller works are in the collections of many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Whitney and the Brooklyn Museum. When some of his sculptures were exhibited at the prominent Borgenicht Gallery on upper Madison Avenue in 1973, James R. Mellow wrote in The New York Times, “This is precisionist work of a high degree, every effect calculated for maximum effect and carried off with perfect aplomb.”
From Artforum. See less