2013 Catalogue Archive

Ugo Rondinone has become widely recognized for creating works that profoundly resonate with the human condition. He produces freely within a rich variety of disciplines and media, presenting us with unique conditions essential to exploring a vast range of emotions. In The Proud, he stacks bluestone that is rough cut at the quarry along with more organic granite stones to form the human figure. The sculpture makes evident the true nature of its material: heavy and course, formed through time by weather and corrosion. The final work shows a fascinating relationship between the natural surfaces of the figure and the artificial one of the poured concrete pedestal. This body of work was complemented by Human Nature, a large-scale installation presented by the Public Art Fund in which he created nine 16- to 20-foot tall stone sculptures on view earlier this year in the plaza at Rockefeller Center. Born in Switzerland, Rondinone has recently been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens; Kunst Historisches Museum Wien; Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León. This year, Rondinone will have solo exhibitions at Museum Leuven, Brussels, and at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2007, Rondinone represented Switzerland at the 52nd Venice Biennial and curated The Third Mind at Palais de Tokyo in Paris.