Azimuth
1960
Gabriel Kohn (American, 1910-1975)
Not on View

Gabriel Kohn was deeply interested in the spatial relationships between his sculpture and its surroundings, particularly with regard to scale. Often working on monumental projects, as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth did, Kohn once stated that “one more step and [my sculpture] will be architecture.” Even on a smaller scale, the work of this Los Angeles–based artist interrupts and arranges the space around it, a reflection of the artist’s training as both a sculptor and an architect. Ventura XII, created while Kohn was working in his Ventura Boulevard studio, suggests a bulkiness completely different from the lightness and precision of the careful geometry of Azimuth, particularly as it teeters over a small self-base. Though they are both abstract and formally rigid, these works nonetheless announce their presence in their surrounding space in very different ways.

Details

  • Artist Name: Gabriel Kohn (American, 1910-1975)
  • Title: Azimuth
  • Date: 1960
  • Medium: Pine wood
  • Dimensions: 22-1/4 x 22 x 19-1/2 in. (56.5 x 55.9 x 49.5 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift
  • Accession Number: P.1973.02
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum

Object Information

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, sold 1960 to;
Mrs. Betty Freeman, Beverly Hills gift 1973 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1973-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.

Summary

  • New York, Leo Castelli Gallery, 1960-05-31 to 1960-06-24

Twentieth Century Sculpture from Southern California Collections

  • Los Angeles, University of California Los Angeles, Dickson Art Center, Art Galleries, 1972-02-27 to 1972-04-14

[on loan]

  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1960-09 to 1961-05

[on loan]

  • Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, 1968 to 1973

Wood: the Sculpture of Gabriel Kohn

  • Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1971-12-01 to 1972-01-02
  • Salt Lake City, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, 1972-01-16 to 1972-02-20
  • San Francisco Museum of Art, 1972-03-09 to 1972-04-23

West Coast Art

  • Pasadena Art Museum, 1972-06-20 to 1972-09-03

Beyond Brancusi: The Space of Sculpture

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2013-04-26 to 2014-01-06
  • Petersen, V., Art News,
  • Seldis, Henry J., Los Angeles Times, p. 69
  • It Is, 1960, p. 65
  • Newport Harbor Art Museum, Wood: The Sculpture of Gabriel Kohn, 1971,

Additional Artwork by Artist

Untitled Gabriel Kohn 1963
Untitled Gabriel Kohn 1963
Untitled Gabriel Kohn 1963

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