Ursula von Rydingsvard lecture

In the second Wendy Evans Joseph Lecture on Art and Architecture, Brooklyn-based sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard details her working methods through a series of recent large-scale pieces. The transformation of materials with saws and chisels into powerful, massive forms show the mark of the artist’s hand.

While cutting and assembling cedar beams is her primary approach, von Rydingsvard also presents work in bronze, copper, and paper. For the Wunderkammer exhibit at the 2012 Venice Biennale, she molded wet, pressed paper onto a wooden relief, which dried to create wall hangings that absorbed the color of the cedar relief. For monumental sculptures at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England, von Rydingsvard cast bronze forms that she patinated in a variety of warm shades to further animate them.