Mark di Suvero

Galileo, 1996

Mark di Suvero’s works deal with the subject of the moment of movement in a symbolic sense. In contrast to their virtual stasis and centered calm, his sculptures appear to carry dynamic expressive powers which actively pervade the surrounding area. The overriding impression they give is one of merely latent and imaginary mobility, even though there are sometimes moving parts on his sculptures. In the mid-sixties, the sculptor exchanged his artist’s atelier and gallery for urban and natural space. His sculptures, which are made of building timber, metal supports and T-beams, now have an enormous sense of presence about them. Both his earlier and more recent works encourage the beholder to conquer them physically, enticed by their simple structures, openness, accessibility and clarity. One likes to walk through them and around them, to look up at them or observe them from a distance, experiencing the suspense inherent in their immaterial correlations with the surrounding space. The title of the sculpture in the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, situated at Potsdamer Platz Berlin, references Galileo Galilei, the Italian Scholar, Astronom and Physicist, who in the early 17th century sought to give evidence to the heliocentric Copernican system.