TitleFreefall Black and White
Artist
Philip Pavia
(1912 - 2005)
Date1994
MediumMarble
DimensionsOverall: 12 3/4 x 14 x 15 in.
Other (Sculpture): 9 3/4 x 13 1/4 x 13 in.,
Other (Base): 2 1/2 x 10 x 13 7/8 in.
SignedSigned on marble base: "PAVIA / 1994-5"
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, May 15, 2002
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number2002.8
Label TextWith a legacy as timeless as the stone he carved, Philip Pavia's lifetime affair with marble began as a child in Stratford, Connecticut. The son of an Italian stonecutter, Pavia attended Yale University for a short time before moving to New York City to study at the Art Students League, where he met Arshile Gorky and befriended Jackson Pollock. In 1934, the artist studied at the Accademia d'Arte in Florence, often visiting Paris. When he returned to New York in 1938, Pavia brought with him a passionate love of debate and sincere affection for artistic discourse. This enthusiasm inspired him to organize The Club in 1948, a series of gatherings of artists assembled in various locations under the pretext of artistic discussion. These vanguard meetings, which Pavia hosted until 1956, essentially served as a forum for most of the New York School, whose revolutionary ideas and strong personalities would define abstract art for nearly a generation. Following his position as chief organizer of The Club, Pavia published the magazine It Is (1958-61), which served as the torchbearer for Abstract Expressionism. In 1961, he had his first solo exhibition of abstract sculpture at the Kootz Gallery in New York and in 1969 created Monumental Marble Abstraction, a ten-foot high work that now resides at the entrance to the Cloisters Museum in New York City. By working in stone, Pavia essentially practiced an ancient art in a modern, avant-garde style. As Pavia has stated: "The abstract painters . . . Pollock, de Kooning, Kline-inspired me . . . I saw marble under the skin of their planes." Pavia's use of the labor intensive, direct carving method recorded the artist's subtractive strokes yet created works whose form suggested the origins of the world and the primeval anatomy of stone. Pavia also worked extensively in bronze and terra cotta, but, according to the artist, "marble throughout the centuries has had a unique quality: the state of mind of the artist hovers in its voids."
"Freefall Black and White" is derived from a series of marble sculptures that Pavia began in the 1960s. Paring ascension with collapse, the sculpture cultivates forms from amputated blocks, while its crumbling structures suggest the weight of history and the ruins of ancient civilizations. Yet a paradox exists between the anarchic arrangement of stone and its high level of craftsmanship. Polished to the point of glistening perfection, the smooth surface contradicts the raw marble exposed by the artist's chisel. With tranquility that conceals its defiant nature, "Freefall Black and White" displays a degree of freedom and intellectual vigor that pushes the work beyond the physical realm and into an interior space. It is as if the vibrations of Pavia's strokes shatter the stone's surface, revealing the truth of both the material and the artist harmonizing an inherently static traditional medium with modern Abstract Expressionism.
[c. 1855]
