Recently installed at TurnPark Art Space, the aluminum sculpture 4 the 5th (of Beethoven), created in 1972, became an inspiration for the artist's following body of work, called the Hellenic Series. Charles Ginnever’s Hellenic Series draws directly from established mythological frameworks, using classical reference as a site of formal inquiry through a series of folded steel plates assembled into increasingly complex fractal compositions. Ginnever often used finished sculptures as a springboard to start the next project. The exhibit showcases the artist’s searching for the next direction using drawings, geometric studies, and steel models. Experimenting with geometries first explored in the Linear Series and inspired by the shadows of Stonehenge, which he visited in 1974, Ginnever draws and re-draws the already-created sculptures to push the expressive qualities of steel. The resulting body of work, shadows that come to life, swell up and twist, all while harking back to the archaic origins of Minoan and Greek myths.
An internationally recognized artist, Charles Ginnever (1931 – 2019), initially trained under Ossip Zadkine in the early 50’s at the Acedémie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. He completed his artistic training in 1959 with a Master's in Fine Arts from Cornell University. Ginnever’s prolific career spans over six decades, and from his earliest works to his last, he consistently challenged viewers’ notions of perspective, both Western and Non-Western. Ginnever has exhibited widely over his long career in prestigious galleries and museums around the world. His work can be found in many private and public collections and sculpture parks around the country, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, Storm King, and The Smithsonian.
-Grigori Fateyev, curator
EVOLUTION OF CHARLES GINNEVER’S HELLENIC SERIES
Charles Ginnever’s Hellenic Series sculptures were born out of a trip he made to Stonehenge, combined with themes he explored in an earlier group of works in his Linear Series. Having been awarded both a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974, he decided to take a trip around the world to visit important historical and cultural sites. One stop along his world tour was Stonehenge, where he arrived late in the day and was captivated by the parallelogram-shaped shadows cast by the monument, which, to him, reminded him of his earlier Linear Series works, which were linear outlines of bent parallelograms
One of Ginnever’s earliest Linear Series works, entitled 4 the 5th (of Beethoven)(1), 1968-1972, provided the genesis for his later Hellenic Series works. Other Linear Series works in this group include Levade (for Linda)(2), 1978, and No Place to Hide(3), 1986. In each of these works, there are a number of sections which lean upon the other. Each of these sections represents a parallelogram defined by line, as opposed to mass or plane, and each parallelogram has been bent along its shortest diagonal at ever wider degrees.
Building upon this concept and working with the solid shadows that he witnessed at Stonehenge, Ginnever created his Hellenic Series in a similar manner, using planes instead of lines. Solid sheets of steel were cut into parallelograms and then bent in ever wider degrees before being stacked upon each other.
In 1977, Ginnever made several maquettes related to his Hellenic Series works with the intention of making an edition of six plus one artist proof for each sculpture. None of these editions, however, were completed in full, thus increasing the rarity and value of the existing pieces that were fabricated and that are currently available. In 1978, a group of these maquettes was exhibited at the Max Hutchinson Gallery in New York from March 28th through April 22nd. Later that year, they were included in a solo exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art, Charles Ginnever: The Hellenic Series Sculptures.
1 4 the 5th (of Beethoven), is currently on long-term loan to TurnPark Art Space, West Stockbridge, MA.
2 Levade(for Linda) is currently installed on the artist’s farm/studio in Putney, Vt.
3 No Place to Hide is on loan and currently installed in the private sculpture park in Lincoln, Nebraska
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