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[As published in The Review + in 2017]
Albert Paley, one of the world's most distinguished and influential metalsmiths in the world, thinks about things in simplistic terms. Simple rules and pitfalls are good to keep in mind, and as he works, he deals with the greater complexities and nuances of life. Technically, the bigger the complexity, the bigger his vocabulary is. “You can express yourself on a wider range, so I directed myself to metal working,” he says as he reflects on the way he’s always processed art by using the two halves of his brain: the logical and the emotional sides.
Paley sounds comfortable discussing the creative process, and his voice over the phone from his New York studio comes through clearly as he talks about decades of his life creating mesmerizing pieces. As he explains, metal working is very logical. “One step leads right into the other. You think through the process, through the material, the characteristics of the different metals,” he says. And as I later learn, that type of investigation of material and form development, is exactly in tune to the way he thinks about things, and life in general.
This dialogue with Paley seems familiar and ordinary, like an everyday conversation between friends or a next door neighbor on a quiet, Sunday afternoon. But I discover a fact sheet that states this is no ordinary man. On the contrary, Paley is the first metal sculptor to have received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects. His artworks are exhibited nationally in major museums, galleries as well as public art in major cities. And in Boynton Beach, six bold and powerful metal sculptures have been installed at key locations to create Albert on the Avenue Exhibit 2017 /18.
An exhibit celebration is planned for sometime in February 2018, but meanwhile, Albert on the Avenue is attracting buyers and art aficionados, as well as national and regional visitors to East Ocean Avenue in the City of Boynton Beach’s Cultural District. This exhibit contributes to the city’s branding, economic development and promotes the Town Square Boynton Beach redevelopment project.
Paley’s sculptures, which each weigh between 2.5 and 8.5 tons, are part of the city’s Art in Public Places program. The tallest called Cavalcade, is a towering 40-feet-high, colorful iconic sculpture that’s officially been declared a city landmark. Paley was commissioned by the 500 Ocean developer to create Cavalcade, currently the largest public art sculpture in Palm Beach County. It can be seen from the highway or experienced as you walk pass the 500 Ocean Apartments, a chic and cool urban development located on the cross point of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway.
Tune in as our dialogue begins…
Albert Paley, you are considered to be one of the best American modernist metal sculptors. I understand that you initially started out as a jeweler. What led you to experiment with metal sculptures?
Well, I had formal art school training. I went to Tyler School of Arts at Temple University in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. I did four years of undergraduate and three years of graduate. So, I had seven years of professional training. In that training, I learned various disciplines: painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, with metals and all kinds of things. At the end of my training, I selected jewelry as my art form.
And how did you gravitate to sculptures?
I think with everyone, anyone’s background, you’re exposed to a lot of different things. What people tend to do is they gravitate towards things, not necessarily what they like, things that they have an affinity towards. Somebody responds to music and another to writing, or the visual arts. So, I just felt that with all the experiences that I had, with all the different medias and the aesthetics involved in each, that the metal working was very complex. Metal working is very logical, one step leads right into the other. You think through the process, through the material, the characteristics of the different metals, etc. That type of investigation of material and form development, I just felt that I was attuned to the way I thought about things.
How so?
I think about things in simplistic terms. I usually deal with the greater complexity and nuance. Technically, the bigger the complexity, the bigger your vocabulary is; therefore, you can express yourself on a wider range. So, I directed myself to metal working. And in hindsight, it all kind of makes sense, but a lot of people feel that jewelry is very small and that in sculptures is where everything happens. In one way, as far as the individual wearing the jewelry, the human body and human psyche, the jeweler looks at the environment—how people wear it, the types of response from the public—that kind of thing. And in many ways, the sculpture is similar; it’s humanistic, because when you walk up to a sculpture, you experience certain things.
Well, yes, you focus on it and you look at things that speak to you…
Yes, it’s a private experience. And in many ways, that same kind of sensibility, based on human perception, is the human dialogue.
That’s so true. I’ll be looking at jewelry now from a different perspective. And I agree that when you walk up to a sculpture you interpret it differently from the person standing next to you. So, it is very personal.
And that brings up an interesting point. All the work that you see at the exhibition there [Boynton Beach’s Avenue of the Arts] started with some three-dimensional form, and the relationships with one another.
But how do you interpret each one?
I think if somebody looks at something they haven’t seen before, they try to understand what they’re seeing. So, what they do is they go to their past references. Say for instance that the piece is very literal. They might make response to the odor of the ocean or the blue of the sky. So, what they do is bring in their personal experience for them to underhand that [piece]. But, it so happens when you deal with the visual world, you’re also dealing with something tangible. I think the easiest way to explain this is in relations to music.
Music?
Yes, because music is non literal. You experience it; you feel it deeply, and you personalize that experience. It’s purely an emotional response. So, if someone walks to a piece [sculpture], aesthetically, the ambiance, the space—all of those things creates an arena for one to engage in. And because it’s non literal—one person will see something and another will see something else, so what you get is a broader interpretation.
And this ties in with the three foundational elements that stay true to your pieces: the natural environment, the built environment, and the human presence. Why is it so important for these elements to be part of your sculptures?
Because of the context of these experiences. Usually, in an urban situation, you have three major components: architecture, space, and landscape, which deals with the natural environment and how it relates to the architecture. The alley of palm trees along the major roads. There you have the play of shadows and light…so you have all of that, and that’s the physical reality. And then, you have the pedestrian reality—how people experience that when you walk through an arch way, or when you look at the palm trees and see how their shadows play on the street.
And how does the sculpture enhance that experience?
Aside from the architecture and the landscaping, it affords a rhythm, as if music was playing on the street. You stop, you look, you think: how do I respond to it? How do I feel? In many ways, it humanizes and personalizes that experience. Art has always had the ability to do that.
Tell me about your inspiration for Calvacade on the major interception on Avenue of the Arts in Boynton Beach.
That was commissioned by the developer for that site. Because of my relationship with Boynton Beach, the Arts Council contacted me and we agreed to do an exhibition, which will help inform the public to the type of work that I do. It’s very, very nice that the sculpture is placed right on the interception, creating a landmark. If you’re driving down the highway, you see it at great distances. Over the years, we’ve seen building after building, palm tree after palm tree, so what the structure does, is hopefully make a sense of place and a sense of identity for the complex.
And of course, you have the architecture and the landscape…
Yes, in which this sculpture is so prominent and nice because of the lush of the landscape. The building is fairly monotone—it doesn't have much color variation. And the landscape by and large is green. So by having a colored piece… one of the aspects of color is to solicit emotion. Red is very vibrant, the blues and the greens are in tune with nature. And in the emotional context, it’s almost like music.
How so?
The colors play with one another, as a stained glass window would in a church or in a public building. The other aspect too is that as people are walking or driving by, they’re not looking up at the sky; they’re looking horizontally. And sculptures are upward. Something so dramatic about Boynton Beach, and Florida in general, is the drama of the sky. You have the play of clouds, the blue of the sky, and the breeze from the ocean. And when you look at this sculpture, you experience all of that. That’s an aspect of complexity and the relationship with forms.
What inspires you as a sculptor?
Sculptors have a duality with sculptures. Some forms are very geometric, and geometry is kind of logical. Like in a pyramid, one side is like the other. You understand it in a logical context. Other forms used are more organic. They curve in various forms. So, you have these two opposing things that bracket with one another. And in many ways what we deal is, we have two sets of sensibilities: our intellectual sense—how we think about things and how we logically understand things. Then, we also have our emotional self: how we respond to things.
So how do the two play with one another?
There’s always this dialogue that each individual has: I feel this way but I think this way. So, we keep going back and forth between the logical and emotional sense. Sometimes the emotional is what drives you, and supports the other. That dialogue that each individual has, is invisible. We experience it, feel it; it is comparable. And what sculpture does, is make that which you experience the visual thing in front of you. And so you have that play, that interaction with one another. And most of my sculptures play the organic versus the logical of that. They are in harmony and they are in dialogue.
Why do you think Art in Public Places is so important to have in our cities? And why Boynton Beach?
The connection with the city was an opportunity to share that I can use my skills to enrich the pedestrian experience. I think that all cities, and with all communities, the human eyes are on the environment of making it something that one wants to be in. I think what art does is it just personalizes that experience. You stop, you think about it… but also how it plays with your memories. It’s just an enrichment.
How does that affect our culture?
Culture by its nature, is very hard to define. Whether that’s what somebody reads, the music somebody listens to, the movies somebody sees… it makes your own understanding of our world based on your personal experience. The art work, by its nature, comes from an artist with a very personal statement. So, it’s another type of communication that enriches the ones experienced.
So, Albert, what do you like to do for fun?
Talking to you!
Awe, you’re so kind! But c’mon, tell me.
Well, I tell you. I think with everyone, if you are able to express yourself in the most truer way where you engage your intellect, you engage your emotions, and you express yourself to something that’s uniquely who you are, without compromise, then I think that’s probably the most fulfilling situation that a person can be in. Whether it is what they do or relationships that the might have. And for me, this dialogue that I’ve had with sculptures and my function as an artist, has allowed me, fortunately, to function in an uncompromised way, and to create a vocabulary that’s uniquely what my sensibilities are about. So, basically my delight in life is my ability to function as an artist.
I know what you mean, because as a writer, that’s exactly how I feel.
And I think that’s interesting too because the process is the same. I also write poetry, and of course that dialogue is with words. You want to converse back and forth, using the tool of language… how you can best describe how you feel. That’s a play of the emotional and logical that comes together. How you communicate as a writer is the same as how I deal with sculptures. So the technical aspect of sentence structure, of words used, and the way it all comes together—that process of creating your own personal perspective and dealing with all of those issues, is creativity.
So creativity is…
Creativity is fundamentally a human condition we all have, and it’s just expressed in a different way.
Albert, I hope to meet you in person soon.
Well, I’ll be in Boynton Beach in February 2018. Hope to see you then!
Albert Paley's descriptive commentary of each sculpture can be access via a smart phone connecting with QR-code on each of the plaques on each of the sculpture pieces. The Paley Sculptures are on loan for the yearlong exhibit ending on September 30, 2018, and are also available for purchase. The outdoor exhibition is presented by the City of Boynton Beach's Art in Public Places program, under the direction of Debby Coles-Dobay, public arts manager. For more information, visit www.boynton-beach.org.