A Landscape for Modern Sculpture

The monumental sculpture of the postwar years has generally achieved, at best, an uneasy truce with its surroundings, too often crowned into urban settings that compete with, rather than complement, its scale and visual power. But at Storm King Art Center - a 200-acre country estate transformed into a sculpture park - sculpture and landscape are brought together in the most deliberate manner and to the dramatic enhancement of both. The collection features works by master sculptors such as Alexander Calder, Mark di Suvero, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, and David Smith, as well as by many younger artists. Several pieces have been commissioned for specific sites at Storm King, while the others have been sensitively installed throughout the park's striking terrain. This handsome volume captures the many pleasures of a visit to one of the world's finest outdoor collections of twentieth-century sculpture. Using multiple views and details, as well as spectacular aerial shots, photographer David Finn reveals a great deal about these works that casual viewers might otherwise miss. The thoroughly engaging text by John Beardsley conveys the distinctive spirit of Storm King and provides an enlightening look at the development of both the collection and the landscape over the past twenty-five years.