The Yale University Art Gallery was founded in 1832 and is the oldest college museum in North America. On Thursday evening, June 18, the Margaret and Angus Wurtele Sculpture Garden, located on the north side of the gallery, hosted a free reception for gallery members where six heroic scale preeminent sculptures were surrounded by summer clad visitors enjoying the fete and perfect midsummer evening weather. DJ Shaki played Caribbean vibe music and a plethora of charcuterie and mocktail or wine options flowed. One visitor remarked that it was the next best thing to the New York Knicks’ National Basketball Association championship parade earlier in the day in Manhattan.
“Le Prix,” 2006, a bronze work by Martin Puryear, acts as sentinel in the lower courtyard where a staircase leads upward to the garden. Anchored by a base that resembles a single chamber snail shell, a long chain extends skyward with a circular head — perhaps urging the viewer to look upward, perhaps in wonder.
David Smith’s “Cubi XXII,” 1964, made of burnished stainless steel, has a mid-level garden site as you climb stairs to the garden. It is one of the series I call his robot cactus period. Shiny and self-congratulatory, it stands alone getting deserved attention.
A refabricated version of Claes Oldenburg’s “Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks,” 1969, dominates the upper courtyard. The original was a surreptitious gift placed by Oldenburg, Yale ‘50, in the Beinecke Library Plaza coinciding with the first year Yale admitted women. The original wood and vinyl structure was prominent in photos of student protests during the Vietnam War, and the lipstick portion a deep red, was designed to inflate then go limp. The intent was to combine an icon of feminine vanity and consumerism with the hyper-macho treads of a tank signifying the rhetoric promoting the Vietnam War.
David Smith’s “Bec-Dida Day” is a party ballon of a piece, celebrating the shared August birthday of his daughters, Rebecca and Candida. It fit the evening festivity to a T.
Alexander Calder’s “Gallows and Lollipops,” 1960, ignores its gloomy first word in the title. A many branched mobile with decorative tips is supported by an elegant swooping red triangular base. It beckons the viewer to admire the sky beyond the wind that adds to the expression of beauty.
Louise Bourgeois’ “Shredder,” 1983, composed of wood and metal, sits on the terrace like outdated farm equipment. The rigid set of separated disks provide a slotted view of the environs, and suggest order and regeneration are possible when things get “shredded” or stirred up.
While walking back to the car on Chapel Street, we passed Louise Nevelson’s “Atmosphere and Environment XI, “enchantment in Cor-Ten steel, designed 1969 fabricated 1971,” quietly sitting in front of a stone building with the sign “Street Hall.” The generosity of Yale to display world class art next to a sidewalk is a reason to visit the gallery and gardens and the surrounding campus environs.
(The Margaret and Angus Wurtele Sculpture Garden is located at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street (at York Street), New Haven, Connecticut. For more information, visit artgallery.yale.edu)