What’s in a Name?

What’s in a name? Plenty if the name is Henry Moore. He’s the famous sculptor that greets you at the entrance to our own SUNY Purchase campus.  I never thought we’d be so lucky to have one of his drawings in our ArtsWestchester gallery.  But we do courtesy of the Bank of New York Mellon which has loaned it to us along with 67 other works by some of the contemporary art world’s most recognizable figures. Maya Lin’s drawing is also in our gallery. We were psyched even before we heard that she would be receiving the $300,000 Gish prize on November 12 at MOMA for her Vietnam Memorial. The prize is given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” We were even doubly psyched (if that is possible) when we heard she would be setting up a studio in Yonkers.

But, I digress.  Alice Aycock is a name that may be familiar to those who ogled her sculptures on the Park Avenue median. She also has a drawing in our show Drawing Line into Form which is all about sculptors—Mark di Suvero, Sol Lewitt, David Smith, Louise Bourgeouis, to name a few. They all have drawings in the exhibition, which features works on paper by sculptors from the BNY Mellon Collection on view through December 6. These sculptors are also represented at the Storm King Art Center, so for the real thing, take a ride up to New Windsor, NY before November 30 when they close for the winter.

But back to our exhibition; there are six-foot long gouache tableaus, vibrant painted, color fields, charcoal preparatory drawings, rough pencil sketches, all of which make a captivating and diverse assemblage and a good reason to come to White Plains. The gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 12-5pm. And, not for nothing, we feel proud to have been selected by BNY Mellon to host such a distinguished visual anthology of stunning works.

Image:
Louise Bourgeois
UNTITLED, 1988
Ink and pencil on blue paper
15 1/2 x 9 1/2″; 39.4 x 24.1 cm.
Collection BNY Mellon
Photo: Zindman/Fremont, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA