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Steve Linn
"The Imaginary Quartet" wall sculpture
2014

$65,000List Price

About the Item

Portrait of: Antonio Vivaldi (violin), Niccolo Paganini (violin), Pablo Casals (cello), Paul Hindemith (viola) Cast glass, laser-cut steel and wood. Steve Linn describes himself as a documentary sculptor, conducting meticulous research on each of his selected subjects and choosing which references to interpret for the piece he then creates. The idea for this piece arose while Linn was reading about The Virtual Orchestra Project put together by the composer Glen Hodes. The concept is that musicians from around the world would record and submit their parts. These would then be mixed in the studio into a finished orchestral performance without the musicians ever coming together. "Thus," Linn explains, "I decided that I would like to gather musicians into an imaginary string quartet that could never have played together. Early in my career I was acquainted with Joel Krosnick, the cellist in the Julliard String Quartet, who said the greatest soloists do not necessarily make a successful ensemble. That said, I still dreamed of the possibility of assembling a group of what may be considered the greatest virtuosos of their instruments. "Obviously, I could have never heard Vivaldi and Paganini, so I relied on the host of music historians who determined that they were the greatest virtuosos of the violin and whose mastery of technique modernized the playing of the instrument. The other two musicians made numerous recordings and therefore were easier to select. These four instrumentalists are of course my preferences and their place can certainly be debated. It was important to me that each member of this group be a composer as well, since I wanted to include their music as a part of the visual composition that ties the sculpture together." The music Linn chose to feature was written specifically for each instrument of preference: Vivaldi: Four Seasons (Spring) Paganini: Caprice no. 24 in A minor for Violin Casals: Sardana for Cello Orchestra Hindemith: Viola Sonata opus 11 no.4 This sculpture is somewhat of a departure for Linn since his usual path is to create three-dimensional documentaries about individuals who have done remarkable things. In this case, he was not concerned so much with the lives of the musicians but how they might look together and the imagination of the music that they might have played. Contact the gallery for information about purchasing, or to inquire about commissioning a custom documentary sculpture portrait! Steve Linn describes himself as a documentary sculptor, and indeed, his work rests on the meticulous research he conducts on each of his selected subjects and the interpretation of the references he chooses to develop for each one. Yet his definition would seem to leave out the intensity Linn puts into the materiality of the work. His range of preference is vast and often surprising, using wood, glass, bronze, other metals, and now even holograms to depict the clues he gives the viewer about the work and personality of his subject. He most often combines them all and his mastery of each craft is truly impressive. The subjects Linn chooses for his multi-faceted portraits are often visual artists and musicians he admires, but also sports legends, workmen, and craftsmen (and women). Each tableau contains one or several views of the face or torso, first painstakingly drawn and then most often carved from plate glass or cast from a ceramic original via the kiln-formed glass technique. Tools and objects we would easily associate with the person if known to us are added in a careful composition, but Linn does not stop there. His Portraits series, begun over 50 years ago, now includes more elaborate installations and invites the viewer more deeply into the influences and relationships -- webs that creative humans weave.

Creator:
Steve Linn
Creation Year:
2014
Dimensions:
Height: 47 in (119.38 cm)Width: 118 in (299.72 cm)Depth: 7 in (17.78 cm)
Medium:
Glass,Wood,Mixed Media,Steel
Movement Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Glen Ellen, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU71214793712