Chairs

Traveling to Greece in 1964, I was inspired by the light and architecture and began to find a way to make my first fully realized body of work. Returning to New York, I got a job working at Andre Emmerich Gallery. Emmerich showed pre-Columbian art, and I was struck by its brilliant stylization and symbolism. The phallus, no longer overt in my work, became a synthesis of the magic mushroom, Peruvian knife blade artifacts, plants and priapus, all springing from the seat of a chair. The chair became a metaphor for the figure, and simultaneously eliminated the necessity for a sculpture stand. The resulting works were monochromatic and hard-edged, a nod to Minimalism, the prevailing movement of the moment – one I admired, but could never belong to. Alice Inland, over nine feet high, was the first sculpture in the series.