Bill Bollinger

The cast iron sculptures being shown here were made in 1973 and comprised Bollinger’s last New York exhibition at OK Harris in 1974. These large solid iron pours were cast in sand gouged out to loosely follow the contours of Northeastern lakes Bollinger had frequented. The process resulted in complex three-dimensional forms, topped by the level fluid surfaces that had become a preoccupation of the artist following a 1968 ocean voyage to Europe. Once solidified and removed from the mold, the sculpture’s defining horizontal plane could be displaced according to the topology of its underlying form.

These cast iron pieces are a significant reimagining and summation of themes that had informed the artist’s work up to this point: veracity to material, gravity, fluid definition of form, displacement, edge and monumentality. Interestingly, this work was undertaken in chapfallen response to Bollinger realization that the large-scale bronze sculptures of Henry Moore possessed disingenuously thin metal surfaces surrounding an echoing empty void. Appalled, Bollinger cast the iron works, in part, as an exposé of the illusion of solidity and weight flaunted by traditional, monumental cast metal sculpture.

    

 

 Crayon, Graphite and Lacquerpaint on paper