Will Ryman's Roses: 58th Street
Will Ryman's Roses: 58th Street
(August 4, 2011–January 5, 2012)
Springing up over 7 feet in height and 12 feet in diameter, a colossal cluster of pink and red roses adorns the grounds of The Phillips Collection, greeting visitors as they approach the museum at the corner of 21st and Q streets. Dramatic in scale and brilliant in color, the five flowers, Will Ryman’s 58th Street (2011), are a cheerful surprise and playful foil to the 1897 architecture of the original Phillips house. On view in celebration of the museum’s 90th anniversary, they will transform in the changing light and landscape of the seasons, reflecting the cycles of nature.
One of the eight sculptures from The Roses installed along New York City’s Park Avenue earlier this year, 58th Street evokes a fantastical world where large insects peek from petals and dangerous thorns protrude from flower stems. The handmade sculpture consists of painted fiberglass and stainless steel forms. Its scale and materials evoke the Pop structures of Claes Oldenburg; the bumpy surfaces react to the slick sculptures of Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. Philip Guston’s oversized cartoonish figures, statements on the human condition, were a direct influence on Ryman.
Ryman is internationally known for his large-scale figurative sculptures. A writer turned artist, Ryman is heavily influenced by the works of playwrights and philosophers. His sculptures will also be on view at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida, from December 2011 to May 2012.
Will Ryman, 58th Street, 2011. Private Collection, New York. Courtesy of Paul Kasmin Gallery. Photo: Gregory R. Staley.
©2012 The Phillips Collection.
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