WELDED Metal Sculpture ~ ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST ~ American c1960s JAMES METCALF

Description: A fine original welded copper, brass and steel sculpture by well regarded American sculptor James Metcalf (1925-2012). Constructed primarily of hammered, welded and braised sheet copper, this pure abstract piece incorporates as found objects a brass U.S. army insignia and a length of steel chain, it has all been patinated to a matched mottled bronze finish. The piece stands approx. 16 inches in height including the 2 inch wooden base and it is signed with Metcalf's hand chiseled name. Aside from a few minor dents, the work is in excellent condition. James Metcalf (1925-2012) was an American sculptor, artist and educator. He has been characterized as both an Abstract Expressionist and a Surrealist. Metcalf was born in New York City to a family of stained glass artists. He took up art and sculpture as a teenager but enlisted in the Army when he was 18 years old. Metcalf fought in northern Italy during World War II and lost three of his fingers during combat at Furlo Pass. After the war, Metcalf attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia on the GI Bill and then enrolled at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. He was awarded a fellowship to study ancient metallurgy and moved to Deya, Majorca, in 1953.There he befriended and collaborated with writer Robert Graves on his work, Adam's Rib, published in 1955. Metcalf lived in Paris from 1956 to 1965, where he located his studio at the Impasse Ronsin. In 1957, Metcalf was awarded a grant by the William and Noma Copley Foundation, which published a monograph of his art in 1960. By 1965, Metcalf was an accomplished sculptor, with a studio in New York on Spring Street in SoHo. However, he was tired of contemporary art and moved to Mexico City. He became friends with prominent writers and artists, including Carlos Fuentes and Carlos Pellicer, and was the first to introduce Octavio Paz to Marcel Duchamp. Metcalf won the commission to forge the Olympic torch for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. He was married to Mexican actress Pilar Pellicer, his third wife, with whom he had two sons and one daughter. Metcalf later married Pilar Pellicar's younger sister, sculptor Ana Pellicer, his fourth wife. Metcalf opened a studio and forge in 1967, where he taught artists how to create vases with a thick edge called El Borde Grueso. In 1973, Melcalf and Anna Pellicer founded Casa de Artesana and a school which would become known as the Adolfo Best Maugard School of Arts and Crafts in Santa Clara del Cobre, to promote indigenous artists and pre-Columbian coppersmithing and forging techniques. Their work has been credited with preserving the metalworking of the region. Metcalf died in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, on January 27, 2012. In the United States there are works by Metcalf in the collections of: the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, NY), and the University of Arizona Museum of Art (Tucson, AZ)

Price: 2250 USD

Location: Spring Hill, Florida

End Time: 2025-02-05T01:43:28.000Z

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