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A dozen large,
bronze sculptures - men toiling in the field and foundry, heaving hammers or
pinching molten metal with hot tongs - perch on the roofline of the Grohmann Museum. These fellows, each about 9 feet
tall and weighing in at a thousand pounds a piece, have a commanding view of a
city that was built on the hard work they depict.
The commissioned
sculptures, replicas of smaller bronzes in the collection, were fabricated in
the Philippines
through a process called lost-foam casting that transformed them from their
original size of about 19-inches to larger-than-life scale.
The process
involves sculpting the works out of polystyrene and then creating a casting,
which employs a series of steps using wax, ceramic and molten bronze.
In addition to the
12 large-scale works, another six sculptures are displayed in the 10,000
square-foot garden's interior. The space is perfect place for enjoying
sculpture, contemplation or entertaining.
In July 2008, the Allegory of Industry and Agriculture mural was unveiled atop the Grohmann Museum. The mural is inspired by one of the oldest paintings in the Man at Work collection, Fantastic River Landscape with Ironworks, 1609 by Marten van Valckenborch (Flemish, 1535-1612). Artist Hans Dieter Tylle created a very bright and light-flooded landscape painting for the rooftop mural. The scenery reflects elements of the original painting but Tylle used his own artisitic interpretation based on ideas from the French Impressionist. Two bronze sculptures in a trompe-I'œil -like foreground make the onlooker walk into the painting. For this large-scale exterior project, Tylle used Keim mineral silicate paints from Germany.
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Grohmann Museum |