SIOUX CITY | The past year at the Sioux City Art Center saw Jackson Pollock’s “Mural” leave the building, a new outdoor sculpture installed and a special project curated to pay tribute to T.S. Martin.
“Mural,” which is considered an icon of modern American art, came to the art center during its yearlong centennial celebration that started in 2014. A number of Pollock-related events were held throughout the painting’s nine-month exhibition, including a well-attended event called Rocking Pollock where local musicians wrote and performed songs inspired by “Mural.”
Leading up to the painting’s last viewing date on April 5, 2015, the art center hosted a special reception featuring local indie-rock band GhostCat and an afternoon of family-friendly “drip” art activities.
After the Pollock piece left Sioux City, it went on view at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, and is currently at the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle in Berlin, Germany. Next, it will travel to the Museo Picasso in Málaga, Spain.
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“It's definitely the most famous and highly valued artwork that's ever come through the art center,” said Al Harris-Fernandez, director of the Sioux City Art Center.
He estimates that more than 25,000 visitors came to see the famous painting.
The art center’s latest Blockbuster Exhibition is the Art of the Brick, a global touring display of large-scale sculptures constructed out of Legos by artist Nathan Sawaya.
In addition to Sawaya’s sculptures, the art center will exhibit “In Pieces,” a collaboration between Sawaya and photographer Dean West, who created a series of tableau compositions incorporating Sawaya’s Lego sculptures into West’s photographs.
The Art of the Brick will be on display through May 8.
FROM STORE WINDOW TO THE GALLERY
An exhibit, honoring the legacy of T.S. Martin, ran from Nov. 7 to Jan. 31. Six local businesses created displays around a piece of artwork from the permanent collection donated to the Art Center by Martin’s granddaughter, Margaret Ann Everist.
One of the designers, Melissa Flynn with Spaces Interior Design, conceptualized a window display from the piece of art, one of about 80 donated to the Sioux City Art Center by Margaret Ann Everist and her family.
She tried to capture the ambiance of T.S. Martin’s department store by talking to former patrons, including her grandmother, who recalled special occasions celebrated in the Tea Room, the sweet smell of candied almonds, the grand entrance, friendly elevator operators and soft piano melodies echoing throughout the store.
It wasn’t just a place to purchase things. It was a destination.
Martin opened a dry goods store in the late 19th century that would go on to become one of Sioux City’s largest and most recognizable department stores. After his death in 1915, his three sons built a structure at the northeast corner of Fourth and Nebraska streets in 1919. The department store was bought by Younkers in 1957 and, ultimately, razed in 1970 as part of an urban renewal project.
Curator Todd Behrens challenged local design firms and furniture stores to recapture fond memories of the department store that brought style and sophistication to Sioux City for generations.
“When we do temporary exhibitions from the collection, we try to come up with a theme or new idea to help people see things in a different way or at least in a very specific way,” Behrens said.
INSTALLING 'LET’S GO'
Outstretched limbs of steel bend like a ballerina, pushing the faceless figure forward in a whimsical range of motion that the disabled artist can’t match. Yet, he rivals the sculpture’s take-charge attitude.
When Terry Karpowicz lost his right leg 40 years ago, he didn’t sit back and say, “Woe is me! My life is over.” No, he got up and returned to his life as a sculptor, going back to work in a month.
“A leg’s not a heart, not a soul. It’s just a tool,” he said.
One of his latest works, “Let’s Go,” stands along Pierce Street as part of the 11th exhibition of Sculpt Siouxland. It reminds him of the dancing elephants in Disney’s animated film “Fantasia.” Though hefty, the piece appears poised.
Karpowicz, who now works and lives in Chicago, pursued a graduate degree in sculpture and studied medieval windmills and watermills in the United Kingdom as a Fulbright-Hays Fellow.
He traveled the English countryside, learning how to marry materials and make them last a lifetime. He’d always take scenic byways and stop by properties that had old barns and mills. Crossing a bridge on a motorcycle, his right leg took a glancing blow. He side-swiped an oncoming truck. And he had a choice: his leg or his life.
The amputation doesn’t define him. Though, it did inspire and inform some of his early works. He built kinetic sculptures “that moved through space with more grace” than he did.
“Let’s Go” is part of a figurative sculpture series, started in 2005. The first one was a commission for a health club.
“I hope that when people see this, they get the message and not just the novelty,” he said. “While it is fun … there is a serious message here: don’t sit back and wait for things to happen to you. Make things happen for yourself.”
