Harry Roseman at Gallery Joe - Philadelphia - sculpture - Brief Article

Harry Roseman is an unusual sculptor who has been a presence in the art world for 25 years. His massive sequence of sculptural reliefs in the new Terminal 4 at Kennedy International Airport, titled "Curtain Wall," recently won the Municipal Art Society of New York's award for best new public art project (along with two other pieces at Terminal 4 by Deborah Masters and Diller + Scofidio). His recent exhibition, titled "Gravity," was a collection of works relating to the thematics of the large commission. "Curtain Wall" is a group of 30 large relief panels depicting sets of curtains that start out hanging in quiet vertical order and become increasingly windblown as one mores down the corridor. They are cast in white gypsum and hang on a deep blue wall. The progress from a calm, almost Doric stasis to an agitated, baroque exhilaration is quite spectacular. Everything is rendered in a matter-of-fact way that tends more toward abstract formalization than toward trompe l'oeil realism.

The Gallery Joe exhibition included preparatory works for the commission, pieces done subsequently and other works with a more tangential relationship. The most impressive works were the ones that related most directly to "Curtain Wall." A section of the original maquette was particularly beautiful and employed a three-color scheme that was abandoned in the large piece. Cloth Frieze (1999) was also striking. A low relief depicts the upper section of a curtain pinned loosely to the wall. The forms slouch, lean and fold, giving the piece a lurching, comical energy that is held in check by the deliberate classical balance of the friezelike composition. Small Curtain (1997) is another early test piece for the first section of "Curtain Wall." Its straight simple folds hung quietly at rest, while, around the corner, the forms of Curtain Wall Drawing, 2002 (which was rendered in marker directly on the gallery wall), folded and fluttered wildly. Finally, there were some terrific photographs of various structures and objects (buildings, boats, bushes) covered in cloth.

As a kind of foil to all the drapery, Roseman also exhibited some small wall pieces made of Styrofoam balls with various extensions constructed from wire and modeling paste. Where the curtain pieces set the evocation of motion and rest against a deliberate formality of rendering and composition, the ball sculptures take a more literal approach. In #30 from the "Ball" series, (1997), a ball hangs in a drooping sock with a ring caught around its "neck." Although the deadpan depiction of gravitational effects had an obvious relation to the other works, these pieces seemed stuck in a '60s time warp, recalling early work by Eva Hesse and others. The updated classicism of the curtains seemed more contemporary and infinitely more engaging.

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