About the artwork
Ursula von Rydingsvard
Oddychająca, 2011
Dimensions(h x w x d): 47" x 75" x 8-1/2"
Cedar and graphite
Located in Fariborz Maseeh Hall, third floor study lounge
Ursula von Rydingsvard is one of the few women working in wood sculpture at such a large scale. Of her preferred material, she says that unlike other wood, there's virtually no visible grain to ceder. It's "neutral, like a piece of paper." Using circular saws and chisels, she and her assistants carve and chip cedar into four-by-fours that she fuses into sculptures and then rubs with graphite to further obscure their woodiness. von Rydingsvard says she wants to break people's sentimental attachment to wood, and what she sees as its associations with children’s fairy tales: "I don't want the cuteness associated with the wood, or even the nostalgia."
About the artist
"The daughter of a woodcutter from a long line of peasant farmers, von Rydingsvard (b. 1943, Deensen, Germany) spent her early years, from the age of two to six, in the wooden barracks of refugee camps at the end of World War II. While the artist resists straightforward biographical readings of her works, she speaks of those critical years of her youth as woven into her subconscious or instinct, which in turn leaves an imprint on her art. She often uses variations of Polish words for titles, which she prefers to leave untranslated to preserve the enigmatic nature of her work." — artdaily.org
Major permanent commissions of von Rydingsvard's work are on view at the Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA; Storm King Art Center, New York; the Bloomberg Building, New York; the Queens Family Courthouse, New York; the Nelson-Atkins, Kansas City, and the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York.
See more of her work on her website.
This work was acquired through Oregon's Percent for Art in Public Places Program, managed by the Oregon Arts Commission.
Banner image: Photo by Evan La Londe.