Art That Endures
THE MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO NICKEL AND ITS APPLICATIONS
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ROTUNDA GATE 1997. Formed and fabricated stainless steel, San Francisco Court House, California.
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ROTUNDA GATE 1997 (detail). Formed and fabricated stainless steel, San Francisco Court House,
California.
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NAPLES PORTAL GATES 2000. Steel, stainless steel and navel bronze. Naples Museum of Art, Naples,
Florida.
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NAPLES PORTAL GATES 2000 (detail). Steel, stainless steel and navel bronze. Naples Museum of Art, Naples,
Florida.
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CONSTELLATION 2002. Formed and fabricated stainless steel. Wellington Place, Toronto, Canada.
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CONSTELLATION 2002 (detail). Formed and fabricated stainless steel. Wellington Place, Toronto,
Canada.
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VOLUTE 2004 (detail). Montgomery Ave., San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
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SENTINEL (2003). Steel, stainless steel and bronze. Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.
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TORCHIERE (2000). Monahan Pacific Development Corp., California.
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STADIUM GATES (1999). Formed and fabricated stainless steel and bronze. Florida State University,
Tallahassee, Florida.
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For more than 30 years, master sculptor Albert Paley has been exploiting stainless steel for its
structural properties and aesthetic value By Thom Loree
Nickel Magazine, July 2006 -- One of the world’s most recognized and sought-after artists, Albert Paley is an innovator who has built his reputation on a genius for forging metal into striking, large-scale sculptures in exterior locations. At his workshop, Paley Studios in Rochester, New York, he and his staff practise a variety of metalworking disciplines, almost all of it hands-on and highly refined.
"The allure of Paley’s art comes through its intrinsic sense of integration of art and architecture," says noted American architect Thomas Ventulett. "It is not all revealed at once. You are compelled to visit it again and again, and each time rewarded with a new vision. The strength of his design, the distinctive characteristics of his art, and the magnificence of its execution all combine to make a work of enduring quality."
"To create visual contrast, I like to offset the colour of stainless with that of Cor-ten® (or weathering steel) and other materials," says the 62-year-old, Philadelphia-born artist. "The contrast of the very dark, rich-brown, rust-like appearance of the weathering steel with the bright stainless steel next to it heightens the visual experience, and in some cases we add bronze to contribute to the contrast."
With stainless steel, Paley says, it’s possible to achieve an amazing exactitude in metal-working processes: "As well as having structural integrity, it machines well, it forms well, it joins well. Stainless steel is just a nice, clean material."
As an artist, he values stainless for its distinctive reflective quality.
"With stainless, there’s not a coating; there’s not a covering; it speaks of the metal itself, and it speaks of the plasticity of the metal, which is extremely important for the work I do.
"We use a satin, not a matte, finish, partly to prevent any reflections that might be disturbing. Stainless has subtle reflective qualities which help accent the form of the work. This is especially desirable for works that are placed out of doors. The play of light and shade as the sun passes creates a dynamism. With the satin stainless steel, it almost appears as if light is coming from the material itself, as if it’s being absorbed and reflected out. This gives a sense of liveliness and clarity, which is especially effective in regions where the sky is often overcast."
For his exterior pieces, Paley uses
S31600 with the weathering steel. Not only are both corrosion-resistant and maintenance-free; they’re
strong enough structurally to support works of the massive scale for which Paley is renowned (to cite one
example, The Sentinel, at the Rochester Institute of Technology, weighs 100 tonnes and stands 21
metres tall). "I prefer doing large-scale work in stainless as opposed to bronze because bronze doesn’t have
the same structural integrity," he says.
"Interestingly enough, on the rare occasions when I have done large bronze pieces, I’ve used a
stainless steel frame, or superstructure, to which the bronze is attached. In such cases, the stainless
becomes the skeleton, as it were."
In addition to doing large-scale, site-specific work for exterior locations, Paley designs one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture and assorted other interior works. For these, S30400 is his material of choice, mainly because the works are not subjected to outdoor corrosion and so do not require the same level of resistance provided by the marine-grade S31600 (which contains molybdenum to further resist chlorides such as those in sea water).
The S30400 also has aesthetic advantages.
"Our interior pieces have been designed with a high degree of detailing and are experienced up close. Such
detailing entails considerable forging and machining, and the
S30400 is more plastic and therefore desirable in that application than the harder alloys.
"Also, when you think of traditional wrought-iron furniture, it tends to have a historic reference, whereas stainless steel always speaks of today; that is to say, it has a contemporary reference."
Thom Loree is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
PHOTOS: Paley Studios Ltd.
Elizabeth Cameron |
