July 4- September 21, 2003
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| PATHWAY, 1990 Polished steel on black granite base 10x3x3 ' Collection of the American Hospital, Paris |
Desiring a contemporary facet for the 100th anniversary of powered flight, the sculpture of John Safer was the obvious choice for the Art Institute. His sculptures soar and evoke in the mind’s eye images of flight. Safer finds direct and profound inspiration from the aerospace field and human flight in particular.
SOARING: The Sculpture of John Safer provides a retrospective of Safer’s work over the past 30 years. Visitors will view his early work in Lucite that clearly shows his experimentation with the material and his vision as a sculptor. Indeed, the earliest sculpture in the exhibition is completely functional – a chess set. In a natural progression, Safer moves from the functional to free experimentation with purely sculptural forms. He creates intimate pieces from the Lucite, some of which are flowing and organic and others exhibit a stark geometry. Safer’s more recent sculptures in steel and bronze move fully into the purely abstract. He still creates intimate sculptures of stark simplicity, but he also has moved into the grand scale. Safer creates sculptures for interior exhibition that are over 9 feet tall, and he designs outdoor sculptures that reach up to 65 feet. Virtually all of Safer’s recent work is flight related, some of which reaches into the idea of space travel.
More than 45 sculptures will be on view, including large scale works on display in the Art Institute’s Great Hall and in the General Motors Entrance Rotunda. Safer creates his sculptures in the hope that others will derive pleasure from them. “My goal is simple, but positive,” Safer explained. “It is to have others see the beauty of life and be inspired by it.”
Prior to becoming an internationally renowned sculptor, Safer, a graduate of Harvard Law School, was a successful entrepreneur. In his earlier endeavors he was a television executive and a real estate developer. He launched a presidential campaign and ultimately emerged as a major figure in American banking. Safer now lectures worldwide on these diverse fields.
Today, more than 500 of Safer’s sculptures are in private and public collections all over the world. The New York Times has compared Safer’s position as a sculptor to that of Georgia O’Keefe as a painter and Ansel Adams as a photographer. The U.S. Department of State has sent Safer’s sculptures abroad to represent the finest in American art. He was recently commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum to create a 75 ft. high sculpture, Ascent, that will be installed at their new museum, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport.
PATHWAY
The centerpiece of SOARING will be the installation of Pathway, a polished
steel sculpture that will tower nearly 70 feet over the Art Institute’s
grounds and suggest man’s pathway into space. A gift from John Safer
and his wife Joy, Pathway will be permanently installed at The Dayton
Art Institute and dedicated to the spirit of Orville and Wilbur Wright.
ADMISSION (includes SOARING exhibition):
$10 for adults;
$8 for seniors (60+) and students (19+, with valid ID);
$5 for youth (7-18) and
FREE for children 6 and under and museum members.