Hamilton, NY — Sculpture in Scenic Landscape: David Hayes at the Picker Art Gallery and 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is an exhibition of twenty-five painted steel sculptures which will be displayed on the campus April 11 – June 13, 1999. A guide and map will be available at the gallery, Dana Arts Center lobby, the Cultural Center, James B. 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Administration Building lobby,and the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Inn. Creative Process: David Hayes at the Picker Art Gallery includes drawings, modellos, wall reliefs, and sculptures and will be on display in the Upper Gallery of the Picker Art Gallery April 11 – May 9, 1999.
For the exhibition Sculpture in Scenic Landscape, David Hayes has selected sculptures dating from 1976-1998 to show the range of his career and that are the most appropriate to the sites on the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø campus. Hayes, like his famous former teacher David Smith, has a preference for using steel for its tensile flexibility and associations of movement, power, and strength. A number of the sculptures on display are painted with bright colors. Other qualities of Abstract Expressionism such as frontality, centralization, and literal size and surface can be found in Hayes’ sculptures. His screen pieces are contained and reveal solid/void relationships while other sculptures have many points of view. Hayes aims to make his sculptures become part of the environment which is achieved through his nature-derived forms. He points out that ‘abstract forms and shapes are derived from nature.’
Creative Process: David Hayes at the Picker Art Gallery will show the artist’s working method with preparatory drawings displayed in close proximity to the related sculptures. These works represent the artist’s work of the 1990s.
David Hayes was born in 1931 in Hartford and now resides in Coventry, Connecticut. He earned an A.B. from the University of Notre Dame (1953) and an M.F.A. from Indiana University where he studied with David Smith. This study was followed by seven years of sculpting in Europe which was supported by fellowships from the Guggenheim and National Society of Arts and Letters. He is a frequent exhibitor at institutions of learning including The Gallery, University of New Haven, West Haven, Connecticut; The Pingry School, Martinsville, New Jersey; and Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Hayes’ sculpture is held in numerous collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Mus