Sculpture Map #34 – Woodland Area + Trails

Allen Bertoldi
1-2-3, 1979
Painted steel
10.25’ x 14’ x 10’
Gift of the Estate of Allen Bertoldi

Three clear-cut planes (10′ squares, straight and curved), three welds, three curves, three points where the sculpture touches the ground.  The sloping land allows multilevel views of the sculpture, the presence of the openings allow grass and trees to be seen around, through, and beyond it, creating great harmony between the site and the work.

Allen Bertoldi, 1941 – 1981- A California-born and trained sculptor, Bertoldi moved to New York with his family in 1976. He died in 1981 at age 40 after falling off a roof while renovating his recently purchased studio in Brooklyn.

Bertoldi’s five works at the NCMA were part of a one-man exhibition on the grounds in 1979, the first major exhibition of the artist’s work in New York.  His use of simple geometric forms (often repeated), industrially fabricated, with no evidence of the artist’s “touch,” are characteristic of the  Minimal Art of that period, but with an almost poetic sensitivity to the landscape. A special effort was made to integrate each sculpture with its site (“site-specific”) so that both landscape and sculpture are transformed by their interaction with each other.  Strong and architectonic, painted an even matte black, yet also intimate and gentle, the works reflect the personality of their creator.