Victor's Lament - Allentown, PA, USA - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

This Sculpture is on the lawn in front of the old library off of Chew St. It dominates the area and it rather impressive from far away and up close. Here is an official blurb from the college regarding Victor's Lament and the artiste:

"With a broad knowledge of art history and a profound sense of aesthetics, Mark di Suvero produces sculptures that incorporate the lyrical beauty of motion and the heroic nature of Abstract Expressionism. Di Suvero’s abstractions capture the renewed spirit of American art in the post-war era.

Born in 1933, Mark di Suvero matured as an artist during arguably the most progressive period for American sculpture. In the late 1950s, after studying philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, di Suvero relocated to New York City and created pieces which bridged the gap between the metal drawings of Abstract Expressionism and the straightforward cubes of Minimalism. Di Suvero’s pieces, while closely associated with architectural construction, engineering, and industry, relate to the emphatic gestural paintings of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Di Suvero’s constructions also reference the playful movement of Alexander Calder’s mobiles.

In addition to his familiarity with works by other artists, di Suvero’s most significant artistic contributions derived from the manner in which he broke from tradition. He moved beyond traditional wood carving and embraced the materials, methods and progressive spirit of the modern age. Innovative technology, factory inspired tools, and underutilized materials offered new options for sculptural expression after World War II and as a result, di Suvero pioneered the art of Assemblage.

As an assemblage artist, di Suvero’s direct employment of non-traditional materials such as rough planks, steel rods, chains, girders, tires, ladders, and railroad ties became commonplace in the art world. Such unexplored sculptural materials and found objects became a mainstay for di Suvero’s post-war assemblages including Barrell 1959 (destroyed), Hankchampion 1960 (Whitney Museum of American Art), and Ladder piece 1961-62 (Museum of Modern Art). Di Suvero uses cranes, pulleys, lifts and other heavy equipment to assemble his large public monuments and works directly to design the pieces without the aid of extensive plans or preliminary drawings.

These elements make di Suvero’s large-scale structures simultaneously ominous and inviting. Di Suvero’s aesthetic interest prove evident in the steel I-beam structure, Victor’s Lament 1969-70 which has been a focal point of the Muhlenberg College campus for nearly two decades. The complex pulley system and steel I-beams of Victor’s Lament have provided the Lehigh Valley with a work that is contextually appropriate for the home of America’s steel industry. Today, Victor’s Lament takes its rightful place as an undisputed Lehigh Valley landmark as well as a major icon of twentieth-century American sculpture."

Source: (visit link)

TITLE: Victor's Lament ARTIST(S): Mark Di Suvero DATE: 1969-1970 MEDIUM: Steel, painted red CONTROL NUMBER: IAS PA001316 Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link] PHYSICAL LOCATION: On the main lawn surrounded by the "circle" at Muhlenberg College. It is impractical to assign a street address to the sculpture's location. DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH: The sculpture is very large (like 28 ft tall) and you can walk underneath it. It also moves a little bit or seems to sway in the wind. The statue still is controversial in town, due to its' modernist nature. I can provide photos to the Smithsonian, if they would like some for the database.

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