Albert Paley, Man of Steel

I do. Major funding for this program was provided by Bethlehem Steel and Jean Whitman Klein Steel So then Richard you will some indication. Bruner foundation. And Rochester area and. Additional support was provided by. Oh A.

First light in Rochester New York is cool in a way an ordinary September morning. But today nothing will be ordinary. Sculptor Albert Paley. Today is installation day Genesee past most ambitious creation in his career. Albert Paley his studio staff and a dozen subcontractors have labored for more than four years to bring Genesee past to the point there are only a few more miles in the journey and a few final hours to raise the sculpture in the place and they will be easy. Genesee passage is the culmination of hundreds of drawings and design. Meetings with

corporate officials consult architects and structural engineers and cutting bending welding and grinding massive steel plates. Now the sculpture travels on a flatbed truck to its final destination the entrance to Bausch and Lomb corporation's new headquarters building. The truck crosses the Genesee River which cuts the city of Rochester into a 40 tons of steel 65 feet in length will soon stand in celebration of the corporation that commissioned it. The city that will marvel at it and the sculptor who created. Hailed as a virtuoso of design techniques meeting metal beginning as a jeweler working with gold and silver and now a master of iron steel blurs the boundary between craft and art. And Genesee passage marks a major milestone in a body of work to

continuously reinvent itself. The. Second half of the 20th century has witnessed. The rise and. A major movement in art and that is the studio craft movement. It sprang up. Again and academic circumstance. In our institutions of higher education. After World War Two. Which were being fed through the G.I. Bill of Rights with

this movement flower. Was incredibly. There were hundreds of people making wonderful lives. Metal would work and as the movement happened those major talents. Continued strong. And one of those is Albert Paley. And handful. Of masters and merging from the studio craft. And that's how I see Albert's position today. He is an artist in his own right. Who came to that position through the studio craft. He just look at the photograph and the DNA of him sitting on the bench. Yeah it's an amazing insight isn't it. There is such a keen awareness of the artist in

relationship to the work of the work in relationship to the environment the environment in relationship to the name that you see it's all there in that photograph. It is a fabulous portrait. It's really it's right out of Hollywood roots of the marvels portrait. And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean it's just it just allows you to understand how he makes his transition from not knowing from beginning to find himself through the explorations of his student years to the final realizations of where his artistic bent is and to the knowledge that the man is inseparable from the work and that they have to be unified together for history. Ill.

In 1990 Bausch and Lomb began planning a new corporate headquarters BNL wanted a building that would honor its 150 year presence in the city of Rochester and in 1902 they call this up and so they were ready to go and want us to make a presentation which we did in Rochester to all the executives competing with most of the top firms here and in the northeast. And they selected US corporate officials challenged architects to create a world class structure an urban place with a sense of history and purpose for the future. The solution was a European style courtyard with a traffic circle showcasing an imposing entrance to an impressive still. So within this courtyard You then had the whole perfect setting for a beautiful piece of work. Our committee interview I would say over a dozen artist just

for that space for the ellipse outside the building and what we really wanted to have in that space was something that really spoke about about beginnings and we felt that Albert Paley was the right artist because he's he's a wonderful artist but he also understands the community. And in our first meeting with Albert was it was very exciting. He has this insatiable appetite for designers as we do as architects and you just see just chomping at the bit to get started and really get into this piece. In order for the sculpture to really work it has to be appropriate to the site. The scale the proportion the ambience of the work and the type of specific symbolism addressing the site. We talked a little bit about how it should be somehow represent the history of your presence in the city. It should convey the heritage of the

city in some form. It should also have a celebratory character something that is really bursting with energy and excitement and something which should be at least 40 feet high and thinking about the timeless nature. That Bosh along with seeking right down there with the building. I started thinking of symbols or images that might be. That sense and the symbolism that he had sought through was wonderful. So more calm was fragmented disjointed. And the idea of the river. Sneaking through a former gateway and through the rings around the top the continuity in your matching suit and then ultimately this verse. Harold of course is so famous for it's going to make it so.

Albert Paley manages one of the largest studios in America perhaps in the world spread out over 22000 square feet. It's more like a fan in an artist's studio. At any given time the Paley studio employs up to 10 highly trained artists but unlike a factory with assembly line product Paley makes art. We queue up close to 100 art proposals a year but it's not just the proposals that happen there's contracted work for private individuals there's contracted work for major corporations their exhibitions their publication Albert has his finger in so many pies and he's also simultaneously trying to produce decorative art architectural work and sculpture.

Thank you. Here at the studio we have those who work in the office. There's a managing director in a straight assistant in our business and then on the floor we have the shop manager and then the folks who work on the floor waxing me without Bert and Albert kind of interact with both the office and the studio and the poor people. But the thing that's neat about this place is that everyone can kind of cross over into other jobs. Most people here they have a special feel that they're particularly good at but they don't just tie them to that particular job. And in a high crime situation when you're sort of behind a deadline the office staff has been known to go down on the floor an assistant how to finish a piece and pack it and wrap it. One of the big support functions here for me and Albert for all those of me with the subcontractors as a crew on the floor and in the office. We all work very much as a team. Everybody we all depend on

each other so many times throughout the day. We're small crew. We work with very heavy dangerous things and we need the support of one another and or just get through the day without getting hurt. It's been I can't say enough about the people that were here at the studio. The archivists many duties include updating the growing Paley resume. Currently writing at 75 pages and tracking the Paley catalogue now numbering more than 10000 objects day and day out growth in the enterprise and the business of art. If he's not physically on the studio floor making art or in the office on the phone or engaged in a meeting he's on the road and when he's on the road Bailey is planning selling and installing is our window. Sometime during journeys to visit and install work he's in

Asheville North Carolina. Pieces thirty seven feet high at least 20 tons. And until the Bausch and Lomb commission was Paley's largest steel sculpture. Has received many awards for his work in elections in America and abroad. OK well thank you very much. We went a little bit over but with such a great response and a great audience I love to be able to answer any questions that anybody might have the Basha be stealing and are you happy with it. It's the best thing I ever did. Albert Raymond your order. Philadelphia a working class family with

no formal art back. Yet. Art was the one thing that interested him in school taking a chance on the future really of the role that I was. Mark Noble University the Adelphi. Just the name. Just another. Young student and only after working with him for a semester that I become aware that he was unique and he has demonstrated that unique notes throughout the course of his career when he entered my class. Believe he thought of himself as a sculptor. He surprised himself by how excited he became to make jewelry. Mr. Ward was to that point.

After graduation he was torn between sculpture and Goldsmith yielded to the passion of metal working and stated. He had no interest in jewelry prior to picking up the tools to classical and therefore you approached it in a very fresh hint that the concepts were so uninhibited the dimensionality import all of the skills that he brought to bear as a exceptional young artist brought to bear without his. Being conditioned by the history in the late 1960s. Billy's work was as revolutionary as the era in which it was made. He's the sculptor for the few male body was bold fresh resonated with the social movements of the time.

My work was developing at the same time that is was and I think we both found that to be very stimulating. It was a very stimulating time in Philadelphia besides it affected. Alberto it affected me it affected everyone in the crafts at that time. New people were coming into the area and the crafts community was just forming in Philadelphia and it was a very exciting time for all of us. The craft world has always been a very special subset of the art world and it has a very strong affection for its own traditions. So when Albert Paley began to exhibit these pieces of jewelry there was a pretty strong reaction against them. They seemed almost to betray some of the accepted conventions of the past. It was as if he were somehow promoting himself in too large a way for the form that he had chosen. I think it was not terribly popular with a lot of jewelry. Traditionalists on the other hand there was an

emerging new attitude towards the Kraus. Some of the important dealers at the time recognized his genius I think of someone like Helen drought in Philadelphia who saw very clearly that this was the beginning of a new dynamic. They were real. Moment that I remember was when I saw the double shift during his MFA exhibition at The Philadelphia. I mean I I see it today as vividly as I saw it and I remember that peace and wanting peace and eventually I acquired that piece. Or they were kind of posture towards more context because of the you know quite a lot

of. Problems. So I tried to take that. Always. Hope Mackler who represented Louise novels and Philadelphia. Call me one day and said that Louise never was and was going to be in the city and they were going to be having lunch at the Barkly and would I like to come and join them.

And where an important piece of jewelry. Why don't you wear a Paley. And I selected the Deleware necklace which had the dollar and be in the large round disc with this huge copper forged element that comes out of it almost like an elephant trunk. And I remember walking into the Barclay being introduced to Louise Neville sint and she just became totally silent. I mean she was really upset. That the work of art that I had on was a challenging work of art and there could not be any other object I could have that kind of dominant visibility. 1069 Bailey intellects and built a blacksmith shop in lections garage to investigate the plastic nature of metal. Unlike Cold War Jeanne which is used in the precious metals jewelry the hot forging process of fire fascinated as I have the story of rose over

some books on homework in the library a tile in the woods and when I was studying the Onion's professor he became increasingly interested in working on Love's run to check out what material they found some extremely anxious books which went back to the arts and crafts revival. None of which have actually been birds and sighted troll. And there was a whole the whole time warp that happened there but also we were both very very drawn to it because of this whole thing of investigation and plasticity. Yet the value construct or the social context was totally different. You know so the question was is how could you bring this kind of barricade form vocabulary and process into a contemporary sensibility. Albert had the good fortune of coming along at a point where his discipline was evolving and was being defined and

he. There is one major a contributor to. Completing that definition. He did belong to precisely the right generation. To seize upon. True true true true reason that the link between the vernacular and the elitist. To make something entirely new out of it. Genesee passage is made entirely from steel plates flame cuts to Paley specifications when fed into the torch cutting tables computer. Each piece is cold warmed by staff or subcontractors welded

together and ground to a smooth finish. The plates in very thickness are made from what's called weathering steel or cork. Can a common trade name in one of Hailey's favorite metal. With weathering steel in the alloy you have copper and nickel. So what happens is in the earlier phases the first couple of years you will have the runoff of the iron oxide. Then what happens is what is left then is a very thin residue of copper and nickel which is a self-healing steel. Once he came up with that idea absolutely. That's the way to go. And of course we think of Albert as a new artist but he's also a phenomenal technician. In the work that went into first of all the structure of this piece which is not 40 but 65 is in itself a work of art as a lot of hidden plates and things which you will see from sculpture but are

internal which which keep us from going over. But all of this has to be designed in a way that water can drain through because a courtin steel will continue to rust and oxidize if you traps water. So every place there's a seam in the metal. It is totally welded and totally ground and a place that might puddle water is angled so the water will wash off. Also it has to be able to breathe meaning that has these which appear to be solid forms in fact are hollow and there's vents at the top and bents in the bottoms of the air. With the heating of the steel on the surface creates an updraft. So these become actually like large chimneys. They can totally ventilate the piece to to take out water vapor. Albert's recurring nightmare is that of a weld breaks. And somebody gets hurt. Usually my recurring nightmares through rigging something travels over during times of stress that the dream pops up according to my wife's

dream happens. What you find none of the pushing in the middle with you knows that you were dream of. Hey we left Philadelphia and I you know let the righteous continue to make you and I. Three years later the Smithsonian Institution invited him to work a mission create a pair of gates for the new Renwick. The Smithsonian wanted to draw attention to the breath of the decorative arts. With its first major commission. The redwood. In selecting Albert Paley who did not have a track record in architectural work. And who had a fine tradition as a jeweler but not in this larger format. It certainly was a bold decision. On the other hand it was based on drawings and designs it was based on enough evidence to have confidence that he would do a wonderful

piece. I guess I liken it a little bit to the decision that was made to give the competition for the Vietnam Memorial to Maya Lin who again had no track record and no real experience but enough in her submission to show that she was ready for the challenge. So I know I don't know what kind of a risk the people. I granted the commission but they certainly didn't expect to get the powerhouse that they got the portal gates for the Renwick are. A. Definite stage of the development of architectural ironwork in the Western tradition. They sum up a lot of the ideas that were expressed in earlier works and which Albert knows either from reproduction or from first hand because these pieces are quite famous.

Try in these in the portable gates to not only adapt ideas the decorative scrolls the sense of the size of the scrolls the energy of the scrolls this late scene is just trance transformed into a more muscular kind of decoration. To move beyond the ideas that in some words such as doors shut ins and do so it represents a point of the larger a stage for him then apart from his later work. I think it's more important to see it that way than as an ending. It's really a beginning for him even though it's a it's a finished statement and it's a very elaborate state corporate several medals. It's wild but it's a control energy it's a troll wild something which all the blacksmiths had to deal with whether they were working

while sentry or whether they were working in the early 20th century. It demonstrated that he was capable of making work on a lower scale the highest quality. And it demonstrated this in a particularly sensitive side that is. Well established government institution. Of live in the nation's capital. So suddenly here was this guy hardly who gets up this monumental thing. And everybody is forced to agree that even if you look around you whether you like it or not the actual quality of the workmanship is fully equal to anything which has been produced in America in the past and in many ways shows a more inventive approach to it traditional military. But it was so full of energy and so full of life

so to speak. That people who had been violently opposed to ornament suddenly found the. Resistance crumble and that suddenly it suddenly seemed that it would be possible to invent of a cover of one of them for the sake of trying to sanction. The Renwick gates to failure. Fabricating the gates meant expanding his studio purchasing new equipment and hire his first employee. Shortly before the gates were completed while motorcycling over the evening. Paley had a serious accident. I was told that because of internal injuries I was going to die. And right after I was told that my my apprentice was there. And. It was quite an emotional time. And so the reality that I was experiencing that that life resigned knew it was going to be gone and I had X amount

of time and what the hell was I going to do with it. And the thing was constantly on my mind was to finish the gates. So. I had Richard Palmer was the my assistant at the time give me a sketch book and I just continued to draw the details of the resolution of the gates. So if I if I were to die that this would be you know the resolution of that. Is. During the American revival of the 1970 Albert Paley became the leading sculptor of metal. The constant need for a new challenge. My first new album Paley's work when I was a curator of decorative arts and that

and I was dealing with the formulas of chairs tables hardware. They had been expressed. Through the centuries. When I found Albert's work to be the perfect counterpart to these predecessors what incredible power that also function. Table you can make in visual and tactile impression I never. Pressed. On. We're in such functional created a conference table in a conference

ever Kerry and I'm with you. I feel if you work in that circumstance. If you could hold your own conference. You were made of some special stuff. And the conference would have been defined by what went on to correspond to this one. I think when we sit down talk about the scope of the exhibition and the theme of the exhibition hall all these critics and kind of stories often compare Paley's work to the R nouveau period of the 900 20s refusing to engage in the dialogue. Paley himself avoids questions about categorization including the old

argument of art versus craft and I just reinforces all those all that categorization. I think you have skewers of the. San Francisco couple months ago the heart of the minorities. So it really is an enormous body drawing of it. Yes and if you look at his work the thing that is so amazing about it is that there is this Fred you know it's HIS What one piece leads to another you could you can see you look at a piece and you know that's his. But this is just some drawing some writing to the design and writing this is going to be all. The problem with his work is intimately its its original in that it is so intimately. Him and I physically work with them.

He's always worked on things that had an intimate interest to him so in that they are original because he isn't affected. By. Current things I mean it just doesn't happen. He's on his own wavelength and he stays on. What is particular to Albert Haney's artistry. Isn't there a citizen that comes out of the net himself. He has done everything conceivable. To counteract that. Larry says I'm. Taking a challenge harder and harder each time. In the form of material. Techniques. Silver plant gold. Was on too easy to create his works so he turned to the most resistant

intractable metal lariats court tends to. And the steel for him and he fought back and of course one. Ended up turning away. So then he got himself in an elevator motor and started twisting so it couldn't tying it balling it up. What happened there I made that up twisted steel again by. My hand over each obstacle working their way through a kind of inner life. That. Defeated. Resistance. It is the challenge of choosing. The path he

sets out for himself. Oh it's poetry. When asked Paley to submit a proposal for a work of sculpture to enhance the new building Genesee passage with his second design not the first. The first concept barrage was rejected so the first proposal was a stainless satin stainless steel sculpture that was going to be about 75 foot tall that dealt with a bird kind of raw shock silhouette against the sky and the surfaces were designed such that the light would reflect off of the surface. For many reasons they felt that that sculpture was not

appropriate to the corporate and beyond of the Basha Mom world didn't like that were to call and stare all at it. It just didn't appeal to anyone as they wanted something that had more of a a timeless quality about it as something that spoke of the continuance of Boston lawman time and they felt that this statement was. A. Better way of coming to contemporary for the image that they that they sought. Though it happened but it's still going to look like a plan. Well the actual piece of the sense of the progress of albums world is more of plants in the bunch and long since it's it's much more clearly the direction he's moving towards he's moving away from. Never a stranger to controversy havens previous work passage in Asheville

North Carolina generated criticism contention in conflict passage was a federal commission at its installation to rouse the aesthetic life. Controversy. Surrounding the piece was based mostly on misunderstand a lot of people. The sculptor did not look up it's a lot to do about how much it cost and why it didn't look more like a horseback. I think it's a controversy right. Yeah awareness. In the fall of 1995 Bausch and Lomb officially opened the doors to with new headquarters

the media and the public were invited to view the building in the many works of art purchased or commissioned by the company. Absent from the building exterior however was Genesee past. Spring. You know sort of like the rock just last. Nearly three years into the practice of sculpture with seriously behind schedule. It would be another year before Paley completed an install Genesee passage. It was the fabrication of the sculptures massive elements with the long flee. With a split column pieces.

The rings. In the long wave like forms called the bacon strips. I think these death. Squads counterpoint peace to the soaring vertical forms known as the debris also required meticulous work. By the end of the day. The final resolution was that we would do the sculpture in modular sections do what we could in house here. Those sections within a ship to another site will be leased and thus real space and then fabricated the total unit. This is pretty much the orientation that we have now. It's a slide that you know laying down the final difficult assembly of the sculpture was overseen by Paley's engineer to assure its structural integrity along with the one that's around like that. So you have two of the three point contact.

The test became critical when Paley discovered it was impossible to assemble the sculpture in a vertical position. He was forced to create the 40 ton three dimensional vertical field filter while it was lying down. Paley didn't know if it was a static vision would be realized until the sculpture was actually installed. Fight as the American economy boomed in the 1980s. Architects of means turn to ornament long out of fashion the decorative element was once again involved and the artist craftsman Albert Paley was once again in the right place at the right time. As with his furniture demand for his architectural metal work increased.

Ah. By 1995 Paley had become the first metal sculptor in the history of the American Institute of Architects to receive Institute honor the the pleasure of working with Albert is through his understanding of the relationship of art and architecture. Yet here Albert has the ability to make something that is in fact integral. It looks like it belongs there. How does he do that. He does that because he has a sense of what the architect is doing. So he has a great understanding of what architecture is about and its space its form its material to all of those things combined. You look at enough buildings to know how you make them with genuine or authentic about them. I met

Albert because of his patients of mine. We were both sitting on the same bench waiting to go and see the same group of people. It was the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation. Albert had won a competition to design some tree grades that were going to be used along Pennsylvania Avenue. I had won the competition for the construction of the Willard Hotel. So sitting next to Albert I could help but say hello. So what are you doing here. He showed me his true great so I showed him my Willard Hotel. And that's how our conversation began. This was probably 20 years ago. I think artists today are in a difficult position. They are the last to be invited to the table. You need to be of a special temperament and intelligence to be able to come in at that late stage understand the givens of the situation and then do something that is meaningful.

And I think too frequently we've seen the results of that and sometimes they aren't satisfactory. But it's Albert's disposition and intelligence that allows him to come in late in the project still get the spirit of it and bring his own art and craft to making a meaningful contribution. Paley's most impressive commission of the late 1980s are his eight sculptures for the Wortham Theatre Center in Houston Texas. His objective was to make a ceremonial statement that would complement the center's grand staircase. Paley solution. Became four pairs of Scotch each rising higher in stature and elaboration pages ascend the long escalator. The opera house of major working. My feeling from the pictures I've seen is quite simply that it does what you want to do. But going to a theater

is both a festival and in a way a Christ Grace I sever my military. And. Starting up. Actually several Monia says Well. They make it into a process of knocking off everybody turns into his or her own procession so to speak. That shoulder is a wonderful story. It's a very clever. Metaphorical I dare. I don't think that things exist as. Individual bits of sculpture. I think that. As a service. Did you see him drunk. Oh ye. Oh oh. Oh oh. Oh oh. The road of a public sculptor which is what probably has become is a peculiarly thorny one and I think the

history of his commissions is a very interesting history of debate within the United States about what the nation is supposed to be. And this in spite of the fact that in the manner of our times these monuments on nonspecific Albert's intent I don't think is to challenge. Through you or through aggression Albert comes out of a totally different world design world. He's more I think involved in creating something beautiful for space. The public is not jarred by it. Most comments are quite beautiful. He. Has a tremendous sense of scale

of material of appropriateness workers goes back to his jewelry making and that a kick you can see. You took your asleep executed. He is totally in it's place in sight. It's lighting. Everything. Everything to do with the work. It is a large. Very beautiful. Never like to stir things up. I think Albert would rather have you hate a piece you dislike a piece intensely than to be indifferent to it and I think he likes to challenge people's thinking.

If it's a piece of. Oh oh a functional piece of furniture is an example that it can also be a beautiful piece of art at the same time. Sunny's. I think challenging people and is as art then creates for you or the large public spaces I think he wants people to react to it to respond to it to to stop and look at it and to think about. It if you like to stir things up. And with himself also I think we when things get complacent I think he likes to challenge it and break the mold a little bit. I've seen him do it a number of times and he's doing it right now. The most recent of Paley's public sculptures are a series of museum pieces first

created for the Toledo Museum of Art followed by a one man exhibition for the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University. Unlike Paley's earlier sculpture work these pieces celebrate aspects of classical images. The most direct influence is the Toledo museum's 1954 mural by the team's. Apollo. And I know look I know what he's saying. And.

When you see this what or way do I attempt to do this right or I don't know how I'm going to solve this problem but I'm going to do it. And he loves her and. I. Not. A lot of good welled up here. Well well there and they will pick up one that. Likes enough. The one common. Thing that nobody ever really wanted to think about through this entire process and I

thought it did as much as I tried to think about it. I could waste too much time I had because if you ever wasn't thinking about it what was the ribbons for all this process of this very straightforward fabrication and the help from favor cation the columns of rings a bacon strips or things. The thing it wasn't the same were the ribbons. As much as I whined to know about how we're going to make them we didn't know. And I'd look at Albert and say how we're going to have ribbons. I don't know. He's of what do you think I said I don't know either. So but it's interesting that all the straightforward fabrications going out and there was one common thing that neither of us wanted to think about were where the ribbons. The solution for creating sinew with ribbons from rigid steel. Paley made small scale brass model drawing hash marks on them from one end to the other. It's up got to you then use me like you'd light on the hash mark for reference.

The bent points on the steel plate. The results were exact duplicates of a small model but 20 feet in length and a half inch thick steel ribbon weighs about three quarters of the time. The next task was to live and well the ribbons in the place. Who completed it. OK we bent and twisted sections of the ribbons into their final. Third. Thing. What.

Passage of yours from this says will bring. All those former relationships over working with all the time. The play. Deals with dynamism and trained for years with geometric. Librium struck between the volumes so kind of frozen spaces were. Think of those. The thing.

With. A. Major funding for this program was provided by Bethlehem

Steel and Klein's. Foundation. And Rochester. And. Additional support was provided by. For a VHS copy of Albert Paley man of steel from films for the Humanities and sciences. Please call 1 800 2 5 7 5 1 2 6 or visit us at our website at WWE Films dot com.