Mark Di Suvero: Tabletops

Preeminent American sculptor Mark di Suvero (b. 1933) is best known for his dynamic and monumental works made of industrial steel and salvaged materials that populate museum grounds, landscapes, and urban environments around the world. In addition to countless exhibitions and awards, in March 2011 di Suvero was honored with the National Medal of the Arts by President Obama in a White House ceremony.

This exhibition, organized by UMMA and on view exclusively in Ann Arbor, features approximately 15 of di Suvero’s rarely exhibited smaller scale pieces, or tabletops, from the 1950s to the present. The tabletops are not maquettes of larger-scale works but an expressionistic and engaging genre all their own, an outlet for exploring ideas relating to the calligraphic nature of form, balance, proportion, and movement. Drawing from numerous private collections as well as the artist’s studio, the exhibition offers the opportunity to experience this intimate work in the Museum’s ground level, glass-walled Irving Stenn, Jr, Family Project Gallery, adjacent to the two di Suvero outdoor steel sculptures on the Museum’s grounds–Orion (2006) and Shang (1984–85).