In Boston, along Boston's waterfront, is a set of four angled steel sculptures, next to the Harbor Towers. These scuptures are untitled, but the installation is a recognized work of art by David von Schlegell.
Though the sculptures are owned by the towers, they are easily assessible by the public; the Boston Harbor Walk passes right by them.
The pieces are four blocks of stainless steel that are have an obtuse angled bend. They have the appearance of four shiny laptop computers facing each other in pairs. However, the pieces were made in 1964, far before laptops existed. People do confuse them with solar panels. I was imagining them as solar cookers, though, and they could be very hot to the skin in bright, sunny days.
Nearby is a small kiosk that explains the installation.
Side One states:
"David von Schlegell
American, 1920 - 1992
Untitled Landscape, 1964
Stainless Steel, 15'x15'x17'
Harbor Towers Plaza, India Wharf
Harbor Towers Condominiums Trust Art Collection"
Side 2:
"David von Schlegell was born in St. Louis in 1920 and trained as a naval architect and engineer. During World War II he trained as a military pilot and thereater studied painting at the Art Students League in New York. Drawn to sculpture byhis technical interests, he began experimenting with wood, manipulating it with steam and other old building techniques."
Side 3:
"In 1964 he began to work in metals, attempting to pare from his art the 'excess of emotion' he saw in abstract expressionism. In earlier, more referential works critics saw a tension between engineering and love of nature, betweena romantic sensibility and a coolly mechanic art."
Side 4:
"David von Schlegell had taught at Yale, Cornell, the School of Visual Arts and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Museums owning his work include the Whitney in New York, the Hirschhorn in Washington, the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco and those at Yale, Cornell and Carnegie Institute. Here von Schlegell has stripped his aesthetic to an engineering problem and has achieved a scale that, as he wished, relates to buildings, bridges, and the larger objects in our world."
The view from the sculptures is great, so if you decide to visit, you will be doubly rewarded!
Note: This could be the same entry as IAS 87980058 at this web link:
(
visit link) . The location is about the same, the description is similar, the year of creation is the same, and the same artist is mentioned. Also, the web site included has the address of the Harbor Towers as 65 East India, Boston. (
visit link)