Babette Bloch, Cut Flowers, AP edition of 9, 60 x 31 x 13 1/2 inches, 1999
Concurrent with the group exhibition titled Blue Drawings: Figure, Form & The New Narrative, Portraits, Inc. is presenting prints and sculptures by the artist Babette Bloch—best known for her site-specific stainless steel works. The garden of our New York gallery is installed with three sculptures. Referencing floral motifs, two of the works are free standing (Cut Flowers, pictured above, and Triad Magnolia Maquette), while the third, a wall-mounted relief titled Magnolia Trio #1, is a new work created specifically for the Portraits, Inc. show. As an ensemble, they are well considered monuments ideally suited for a sophisticated urban oasis. Smaller-scale works at 11 inches high are exhibited in an adjacent solarium space (which acts as an entry and exit point for the garden) along with a series of hand painted and embossed monotypes pulled using pre-assembly components of the smaller-scaled sculptures. The progress from two-dimensional and small-scale works to the outdoor installation is intentional and key to appreciating Bloch’s working process; her sculptures are all laser cut using varying gauges of stainless steel and feature highly refractive surfaces and edges hand ground by the artist. Bloch is an early pioneer in the application of laser-cut technology to studio practice, however her sculptures are firmly rooted in traditional drawing—all her sculptures begin as renderings and paper cut-out maquettes composed for three-dimensional space. For her debut at Portraits, Inc., Bloch brings her process full circle, and uses her sculpture to create two-dimensional works—a first in her oeuvre.
Laser-cut industrial grade stainless steel sounds pretty heavy duty—and in fact Bloch’s fabrication process isn’t a light-weight production. The material is meant to stand up to the elements. But nothing of the work expresses heaviness; the genius of Bloch’s sculptures, which bounce-back light and twist and turn in space, is that they retain, like the flowers they reference, the ephemeral delicacy of her initial process drawings and paper cutouts.
The sharp contrast of materials, scale, and process in Bloch’s work is a parable on post-feminist art production. The drawings and paper models, from which she fabricates heavy metal sculptures, recall stencils and silhouettes—traditional home crafting activities associated with women. Large-scale metal sculpture, however, has historically been a big-boys game. Bloch walks a fine line here by successfully preserving the movement and lightness of these preparatory models and drawings in her final works. The weighty stainless steel sculptures, punctured by a rhythmic cadence of negative space, are experienced as animated three-dimensional contour drawings. Placed on site, their open form seeks to incorporate, rather than compete with, the surrounding environmental elements, be that sky, foliage, or water.
Bloch has experimented with numerous surface treatments to further heighten the sensation of movement, light, and transparency in her work. Originally she experimented with color; currently she grinds her surfaces with various power tools to manipulate the flow and direction of the steel’s reflective surface. The effect, first prized by the Impressionists, is one of flickering light. Form and materiality, actively deconstructed, result in works that appear to sculpt light rather than steel.
For further information about Babette Bloch, please contact us by e-mail or call (212) 258-2233.
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