JOEL PERLMAN

Provenance:
- Acquired from Galerie André Emmerich, Zurich/New York, by the present owner in 1977.
- Since then privately owned Switzerland.

Exhibitions:
- Zurich 1976, Small Scale Sculpture. Galerie André Emmerich, 12 June - 28 August 1976.
- Zurich 1977, Joel Perlman. Galerie André Emmerich, 3 September - 15 October 1977.

The sculptor Joel Perlman was born in New York in 1943. Having obtained his B.F.A. at the Cornell University in 1965, he completed his studies two years later with an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Joel Perlman has been teaching at the University of Visual Arts, New York, since 1973.

His sculptures, which are mostly larger-than-life, are always the reflexion of his creative process and of a great tension between weight, monumentality, space, gravity and danger. And yet he never makes any preparatory drawings, but only lets the sculpture develop during the creative process. A considerable part of his work is devoted to welding, which once again renders visible to the spectator the significance of his creative work.

"While minimalism was the predominant style of his generation, Perlman chose to push his forms into ever-more complicated, gravity defying, configurations. Though he shares certain qualities with his peers - the thrill of danger in a Richard Serra, the blue-collar heroism of Mark diSuervo - Perlman always investigates with originality. He expands, rather than appropriates, enriching our experience with industrial materials." (zit. www.sculpture.org)