Barbara Chase-Riboud Study for Astrological Fountain (2002)
Only 9 left!Barbara Chase-Riboud
Study for Astrological Fountain (2002)
Engraving on Aquatint
96 x 36.8 cms
Edition of 30
Hand signed and numbered by the artist, Framed
£23,333 + VAT
This print, Study for Astrological Fountain (2002) is a rare example of Barbara Chase Riboud's deconstruction of an existing sculpture. The only print that directly references the remains of an earlier aluminum sculpture; The Astrological Fountain: Sagittarius (1994). This sculpture remains permanently installed in a private collection and is related to her first commission, a fountain for Wheaton Plaza 1959, which was composed of aluminum sheets as well as another of her sculptures; Bathers, (1973). Bathers (1973) is composed of cast aluminum cubes and is the only sculpture which can be both installed vertically on the wall or horizontally on the floor. Seen on the floor in the exhibition Infinite Folds, Bathers (1973) uses cast aluminium as opposed to aluminium sheaths. Bathers (1973) was composed thirty years before The Astrological Fountain: Sagittarius (1994). Though Chase Riboud would only use aluminum for 6 years from 1967-1973, this print is evidence of a consideration of those various aluminum compositions over a thirty year period.
With a career spanning over seven decades, Chase-Riboud’s innovation in sculptural technique and materiality is characterised by the interplay between folds of cast bronze and aluminium and coils of wool and silk which are knotted, braided, looped and woven. By combining materials with different qualities, such as hard versus soft, light against heavy, and tactile versus rigid, Chase-Riboud’s works lend an aesthetic consideration to the sculptural base and speak to the artist’s interest in creating forms that unify opposing forces.
Barbara Chase-Riboud says: “The use of bronze and textile, playing against each other, establishes the heart of my work, a questioning of perception similar to that offered by Baroque sculpture as the conjuncture of folds and pleats of matter which seems a perfect description of my sculpture except that, contrary to the architectural layering, here it is the material that rests in these folds of the soul. Due to the play of materials, my works not only relate to an art of the oxymoron, skillfully combining opposites, but reversing and upsetting the established order and hierarchy of parts as only a true revolutionary does. My art does not cease making folds. There are all kinds of creases, pleats and folds coming from the East, the Greek, Roman, Romanesque, Gothic, Classical, Orient and Africa yet it is truly the Baroque folds and twists and turns that are those pushing movement into infinity: fold upon fold, over fold, under fold, all pushing into the infinity of the fold. These are the unfurled folds of infinity. A double retrospective on two continents is astounding. I am thrilled to see my seminal bodies of work presented together here in the UK at Serpentine where Louise Bourgeois, Frank Bowling and Zaha Hadid have had important exhibitions.”
Recent exhibitions from Chase-Riboud include Alberto Giacometti / Barbara Chase-Riboud: Standing Women of Venice – Standing Black Woman of Venice, Institut Giacometti, Paris (2021); Barbara Chase-Riboud: Avatars, La Verrière, Fondation d'entreprise, Hermès, Brussels (2020); Barbara Chase-Riboud: The Malcolm X Steles, Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2013), among many others. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Yale University Art Museum and the National Ministry of France, among other museums.
In 1974, the artist published her first book of poetry From Memphis & Peking, edited by Toni Morrison, and in 1979 she published her first novel Sally Hemings. Her poetry collections include Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra (1987) and Everytime a Knot is Undone, a God is Released (2014) and her widely translated novels include Valide: A Novel of the Harem (1986); Echo of Lions (1989); The President’s Daughter (1994); Hottentot Venus: A Novel (2003); and The Great Mrs. Elias: A Novel (2022).
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