Pyramidian
By Leah Goldberg, Julia Kunze, Katie
Ross, Andie Abrams, and Nell Tercek
Mark Di Suvero was born in 1933 to an Italian
family in China. As he grew older, he traveled
all the way to California and ended up staying
there for his youth. Once he moved to New
York City, he became greatly interested in
sculpting, for he was surrounded by it all the
time. He has a countless amount of sculptures
roaming from the United States all the way to
international settings such as Germany and
The United Kingdom. To this day, he has a
passion for his artwork and loves creating new
things.
Andie Abrams
The sculpture we studied,
“Pyramidian”, took a total of 11 years to
create. After designing the sculpture, he
decided on a basic material of steel. There
are many other names that this piece of
art could have been called to give the
same effect. It could have been named
something such as “ The Crane,” “ The
Skyscraper,” or even “The Sun Dial” but
instead he used “Pyramidian” to give his
sculpture a name that also hints at past.
Andie Abrams
There are multiple connections to the
ancient world incorporated throughout the
sculpture including a sundial-like shadow,
the title, and the pyramid shape.
Pyramidian is built on a hill, which makes the
shadow revolve around it as the sun rises and
sets, creating a sundial. There are many
elements of the modern world included as
well, consisting of indented construction-like
steel, a hanging bar in the middle similar to a
crane, and the calculated angles.
Leah Goldberg and Julia Kunze
When entering Storm King,
Pyramidian is one of the first
sculptures seen, both because
of its placement on the
aforementioned hill and its
immense size. It is in a field
surrounded by Suvero’s work,
yet it is the most prominent.
Leah Goldberg and Julia Kunze
Pyramidian is made out of
steel, rather than glass or
stone, to further enhance the
industrial feel of the
sculpture. It is rusted since it
is outside, which enforces a
theory of reaching limits
which is demonstrated
throughout the piece.
Leah Goldberg and Julia Kunze
Suvero used large, indented, steel
which gave the sculpture a very
industrial look. The beams looked
like building materials from a
skyscraper. In modern times the
skeleton of a skyscraper is a
common sight.
Katie Ross
Suvero also decided to include a hanging horizontal beam under
the vertex of Pyramidian. It is being held in place by a thick metal
wire.
Katie Ross
Unlike true pyramids, Pyramidian is open.
Viewers are encouraged to move through
the piece, capturing its full effect from
every angle. In ancient times, pyramids
were built as fully enclosed tombs.
Perhaps this is to imitate facets of the
modern world, like being more open and
less secretive.
The surrounding environment only adds
to the effect of Mark di Suvero’s
Pyramidian. The placement and
materials enhance the industrial feel and
truly connect the modern world to that
of the ancient world in a simple, rusted
structure.
Leah Goldberg and Julia Kunze
This sculpture incorporates
two specific details that help create an
industrial and familiar feel to it. One is
the long horizontal beam being held up
by two thick wires; it almost seems like
they are in the middle of creating a
skyscraper, being brought up higher and
higher as they continue to build. The
second detail is the cluster of circular
structures at the very top of the pyramid
shape (one center circle around center
of the hanging horizontal beam, then
directly above that, a larger set of circles
surrounding the vertex of the beams).
The circles and beams are bringing two
worlds together, like an ancient pyramid
filled world and an industrial, modern
sky scraper filled world.
Nell Tercek
The indented, industrial, steel and
the pyramidic format of the art can
be compared to the modern
skyscrapers and the ancient
pyramids of Egypt.
Katie Ross
Suvero seems
interested in
exploring the idea
of the climax of
civilizations; they
cannot remain in
golden ages
forever. Therefore,
one day the
advancement of
our civilization will
terminate like the
Egyptians and the
magnificent
skyscrapers will be
left as the
evidence of our
success and
existence.
Katie Ross