Ralph Helmick

Ralph Helmick
Born (1952-02-08) February 8, 1952
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Michigan
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Known for Sculpture, Public art
Website www.helmicksculpture.com

Ralph Helmick (born 1952) is an American sculptor and public artist.

Early life and education

Helmick received a BA at the University of Michigan. He studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and then earned an MFA in sculpture from a joint program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University.[1]

Career

Helmick has worked in various materials (metal, stained glass, cast resin, found objects) to create large-scale public sculptures in parks, airports, schools, hospitals, museums, and other civic spaces across the US. His works play on human perception, and often employ anamorphosis, an optical phenomenon where images are resolved from a precise perspective.[2]

Helmick's award-winning works include the Arthur Fiedler Memorial on the Charles River Esplanade; the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial at Austin's Auditorium Shores; Rabble at the North Carolina Museum of Art; Landing at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport; Heart and Mind at the Oregon Institute of Technology.

In 2014, Ralph Helmick juried the Public Art Network Year in Review. His own commissions had been awarded the PAN YiR on eight previous occasions.[3]

Helmick Sculpture is based in Newton, Massachusetts. The studio is currently working on its first international projects.

Prominent works

Floating World (2014)

Biorenewables Complex, Iowa State University / Ames, Iowa

This is a three-story suspended sculpture made using eight laser-cut steel panels showing the horizon of a changing landscape, said to depict the evolution of agriculture from the nineteenth-century to the modern day. They are interspersed with abstract perforated "mist" panels, and framed above by a "sun" sequence.

It is inspired by the paintings of Grant Wood, and by compositional strategies employed in Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e, literally "floating world").[4]

Rara Avis (2001)

Rara Avis, Chicago (2001)

Midway Airport / Chicago, Illinois

This 28-foot (8.5 m) sculpture of a red cardinal is made of around 1,800 small sculptures of aircraft.[5]

Rara Avis was recognized by the Public Art Network Year in Review in 2002.[6]

Jurisprudents (2000)

Jurisprudents, East St. Louis (2000)

Melvin Price Federal Courthouse / E. St. Louis, Illinois

This is a sculpture of two 15-foot (4.6 m) tall heads facing each other across a courthouse atrium, each composed of around 1,500 small sculptures.[7]

The design for this commission evolved in the wake of the acquittals of O. J. Simpson and the police who beat Rodney King.

Jurisprudents received the GSA National Design Honor Award for Art in 2000.[8]

Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial (1994)

Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial, Austin, Texas (1994)

Lady Bird Lake / Austin, Texas

This sculpture commemorates a blues guitarist, featuring a realistic figure of the musician in a meditative pose, with a shadow of the musician playing the guitar. It is installed at Auditorium Shores on Lady Bird Lake, where Vaughan performed many concerts.[9]

It is one of the city's most popular tourist attractions, and has been awarded "Best Public Artwork in Austin" by The Austin Chronicle multiple times.[10]

Arthur Fiedler Memorial (1984)

Arthur Fiedler Memorial, Boston (1984)

Charles River Esplanade / Boston, Massachusetts

This is a large-scale sculptural bust of Arthur Fiedler, the late conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, formed from stacked aluminum plates.[11]

The sculpture is located on an island across from the Hatch Shell, the site of many concerts conducted by Fiedler.[12] The art critic Sebastian Smee cites it as an example of high quality public art in Boston.[13]

Collaboration

Helmick and artist-engineer Stuart Schechter (1958- ) collaborated on a number of projects, working as Helmick & Schechter from 1993 to 2008.[2][14]

References

  1. ↑ "Helmick Sculpture: About the Artist". Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 Capasso, Nick. (September 2001). "Brainstorms: The Public Art of Ralph Helmick + Stuart Schechter". Sculpture Magazine.
  3. ↑ Keithline, Elizabeth. "The Public Art Network 2014 Year in Review". Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Morain, Michael (12 July 2014). "Agriculture, history and art coalesce at ISU exhibit". The Des Moines Register. Des Moines.
  5. ↑ "Ralph Helmick and Stuart Schechter's Rara Avis". Chicago Public Art Program. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  6. ↑ Helmick, Ralph. "Rara Avis." 2001. Public Art Year in Review Slide Set, 2002, CD
  7. ↑ "Melvin Price Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse". U.S. General Services Administration. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "GSA to honor 7 projects where quality shows". The Washington Times. 24 March 2001. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "Austin Art in Public Places Tour" (PDF). Austin Art in Public Places. July 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "Best Public Artwork: Stevie Ray Vaughan Statue". The Austin Chronicle. 1995. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Morris, Marie (2009). Frommer's Boston Day by Day. Frommer's. p. 95. ISBN 978-0470497661.
  12. ↑ "Arthur Fiedler Memorial". Boston Art Commission. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  13. ↑ Smee, Sebastian (6 October 2013). "Moving beyond the bronze age". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  14. ↑ Huston Paschal, Linda Johnson Dougherty. "Ralph Helmick and artist Stuart Schechter". Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina presents Defying gravity: contemporary art and flight. Huston Paschal, Linda Johnson Dougherty, Robert Wohl (eds). North Carolina Museum of Art, 2003. p. 124 ff. ISBN 9780882599892.
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