1980s Seymour Meyer Abstract Bronze Up and Away

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A magnificent abstract example of Seymour Meyer's sculptural forms. This silvered bronze sculpture is signed by the artist and is … Read more A magnificent abstract example of Seymour Meyer's sculptural forms. This silvered bronze sculpture is signed by the artist and is titled "Up and Away" on the nameplate.
It is set a black laminate swivel base.
Edition: 4/9.
Sculptor and physician. Born in Brooklyn to Nettie (b. 1887) and Louis Meyer (b. 1877). His father was a shoe dealer with his own store. Both his parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia who later became naturalized United States citizens. During his youth, the family resided on Tompkins Avenue in Brooklyn, Long Island, New York.

Meyer attended Brooklyn College, where he graduated in 1934 (he won a lifetime achievement award from the college in 1994). For his medical training, he attended the New York University School of Medicine, where he graduated in 1939 and then interned at Cumberland hospital. He worked as successful hand surgeon and an attending physician at Beth El, Cumberland, and St. John’s hospitals in Brooklyn, and resided in Great Neck, Long Island, New York. During the summers of the early 1960's, he was a house doctor at Grossinger's resort in the Catskills. He was also a founder of the now closed Deepdale General Hospital in Little Neck, New York. Meyer was the author of a surgical textbook as well as numerous articles on surgery and was an inventor with a number of patents to his credit.

In the early 1960's Meyer – whose own family had never owned nor been interested in art – decided to enroll in the Great Neck School District's adult education program to study sculpture. Considering his knowledge of the human body and its anatomical structure, it is not surprising he chose sculpture, though he would follow an abstract route. It was his good fortune that the noted American sculptor, Louise Nevelson (1899 – 1988), taught his course. Her simple, informal instruction was a perfect match to Meyer's personality, and he thrived under her tutelage. It is said he was among her favorite students and, according to John Hirsch, Meyer became her protégée.

By the mid-1960s, Meyer had achieved enough confidence to begin exhibiting his works publically, and they immediately found favor. In 1965 he started to show at local venues, the Almus Gallery and Studio 733, both located in Great Neck. The following year, he participated in his first New York City exhibition, held at the Sculpture House Gallery. His early works were noted as being "…full of primitive power, evoking ancient memories of ritual drama…" At his 1968 exhibition at the North Shore Unitarian Church Gallery, Newsday art critic Jane Margold remarked that his work Nymph "with its smooth lines and hard, black surface… seems to relent and look vulnerable in places in a way that can only be described as sexy."

The late 1960s through the early 1980s was a banner time for the type of abstract forms that Meyer favored, and during that period he participated in over 60 national and international exhibitions. These included shows at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, the George Wiener Gallery, Equitable Gallery and the Randall Gallery, all located in New York City, the Sculptors League of New York, the International Art Exhibition in Washington, DC, the Delson-Richter Gallery in Israel, and at the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and at the Royal Academy in London, England. It was noted that "Meyer’s output is prodigious… [and he rarely] makes preliminary sketches for his sculpture."

In 1983, he designed a custom, limited edition menorah for Fortunoff’s department store of Westbury, Long Island, which was sold through their various locations and promoted in the New York Times. During this period he also experimented in creating "dynamic, colored and black and white drawings which weave a kind of 20th century abstract magic..." The last exhibition in which he is known to have participated was the Artists for Soroka exhibition held in New York City in 1991.

Meyer was fortunate to live an extremely long life, dying on Monday the 20th of April 2009 at the age of ninety-four. Services were held three days later at Temple Beth-El in Great Neck, NY. His brief obituary remarked that he was "a true Renaissance Man, Doctor, Sculptor, Author, Inventor, Singer, Musician and Sportsman." He was a member of the Sculptors League of New York and sat on the board of the New York Institute of Technology.

In his sculpture, Meyer worked primarily in wood, aluminum, and bronze with a number of different finishes, including those created using nickel and silver. It is suspected that some of his sculptures were cast in solid silver, though that has not yet been proven. The surfaces of his sculptures are usually refined, smooth, and highly polished, which "add an impressionist dimension to the work; the play of light and shadow on the convexities and concavities constantly changing and enhancing the cast bronze or aluminum." His works were issued in a variety of sizes, from small pieces measuring less than a foot to works that approached nearly three feet in height. The majority of his sculptures were cast in Brooklyn, New York and were issued in editions of nine or less. See less