The constructivist genius of John Mason found many expressions over his long career, ranging from small-scale experiments with gesture and space, through impressively rigorous large-scale Minimalism, to torqued, abstracted figural sculpture. At each phase of this complex trajectory, he responded to prevailing artistic currents while clearly establishing his own forceful artistic persona. At the time of Objects: USA, interestingly, he was about as distant from the object as he ever got—beginning his important work with prefabricated firebrick, which would culminate in his Hudson River series of 1978.
For the exhibition, the curators reached back to the early 1960s, a period when he had been showing at the Ferus Gallery, the chief West Coast outpost of the avant-garde. Vertical Sculpture, included by Smith and Nordness (now in the Arkansas Arts Center and featured in the Objects: USA 2020 catalogue), is a powerful black pillar, with a rivulet of red coursing down its front.
Untitled wall sculpture in ceramic. Designed and made by John Mason, USA, 1958.
61" L x 33" W x 10" H
154.9cm L x 83.8cm W x 25.4cm H
SP1392
Courtesy of Friedman Benda