:en:Mark di Suvero

Di Suvero was born in Shanghai, China, to Matilde Millo di Suvero and Vittorio di Suvero (later known as Victor E.), both Italians of Sephardic Jewish descent.{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/mark-di-suvero-and-di-suvero-family-papers-11585/more#biohist |title=Mark di Suvero and di Suvero family papers, 1934–2005 |website=aaa.si.edu |publisher=Archives of American Art |access-date=March 9, 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=1279 |title=Mark di Suvero Luce Artist Biography |website=aaa.si.edu |publisher=Archives of American Art |access-date=March 9, 2015}}{{cite book |last=Monte |first=James K. |date=November 1975 |title=Mark di Suvero |url=https://archive.org/stream/markdisuvero00disu#page/n0/mode/1up |location=New York City, New York |publisher=Whitney Museum of American Art |access-date=March 9, 2015}}{{cite news |date=July 16, 1978 |title=Mark di Suvero, Art World's 'Last Heroic Figure' |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iZJNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3444%2C5060385 |newspaper=The Ledger |volume=71 |issue=270 |location=Lakeland, Florida |pages=37–38 |access-date=March 9, 2015}} He was one of four children, the eldest being Victor di Suvero. His father was a U.S. Navy attaché for the Italian government, and the family lived in Shanghai until his father was relocated to Tientsin shortly after the birth of the family's last son in 1936.

With the outbreak of World War II, di Suvero immigrated to San Francisco with his family in February 1941 aboard the S.S. President Cleveland.{{cite web |url=http://www.sfmoma.org/about/press/press_exhibitions/releases/947 |title=New Partnership Launched SFMOMA's Off-site Programming with Major Outdoor Exhibition of Mark Di Suvero's Sculptures Near Golden Gate Bridge |date=December 12, 2012 |website=sfmoma.org |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |access-date=March 9, 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.heinzawards.net/recipients/mark-di-suvero |title=Heinz Awards Mark di Suvero biography |website=heinzawards.net |publisher=Heinz Foundations |access-date=March 9, 2015}}

Di Suvero attended City College of San Francisco from 1953 to 1954, and then the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1954 to 1955. He began creating sculptures while attending the University of California, Santa Barbara after learning that he was unable to make an original contribution as part of his philosophy major. He transferred to the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with a B.A. in philosophy in 1957.

After graduating from college, di Suvero moved to New York City in 1957 to begin a career as a sculptor. He worked part-time in construction and began incorporating wood and metal from demolition sites into his work.

Di Suvero gained recognition among art critics with his first solo exhibit at the Green Gallery in Manhattan in the fall of 1960. The editor of Arts Magazine wrote, "From now on nothing will be the same. One felt this at di Suvero's show. Here was a body of work at once so ambitious and intelligent, so raw and clean, so noble and accessible, that it must permanently alter our standards of artistic effort."Hilton Kramer, [https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/25/archives/a-playful-storm-of-sculpture-to-a-new-york-uncertain-of-its-future.html A playful storm of sculpture], Nytimes.com, 25 January 1976

On March 26, 1960, while working at a construction site, he was involved in a near-fatal elevator accident, resulting in a broken back and severe spinal injuries. Treating physicians initially believed he would be unable to walk again. While in rehabilitation, however, he learned to work with an arc welder, which he used in later pieces. His recovery took four years. By 1965, he was able to walk without assistance. He is one of the 16 artists featured in Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists, a book that featured the accident and the subsequent effect it had on his health.

Di Suvero was a founding member of the Park Place Gallery in 1963 with Forrest Myers, Leo Valledor, Peter Forakis, and others. The gallery closed in July 1967.{{cite web |url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/paula-cooper |title=Art and Space: Park Place and the beginning of the Paula Cooper Gallery |last=Kirwin |first=Liza |website=aaa.si.edu |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art |access-date=March 10, 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://blantonmuseum.org/exhibitions/details/reimagining_space_the_park_place_gallery_group_in_1960s_new_york/ |title=Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York |website=blantonmuseum.org |publisher=Blanton Museum of Art |access-date=March 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402144228/http://blantonmuseum.org/exhibitions/details/reimagining_space_the_park_place_gallery_group_in_1960s_new_york/ |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |url-status=dead }}

Di Suvero protested the Vietnam War, and was arrested twice. He left the United States in 1971.{{cite news |last=Dawson |first=Jessica |date=September 2, 2014 |title=At 80, Sculptor Mark Di Suvero Is Still Mixing It Up in New York |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-80-sculptor-mark-di-suvero-is-still-mixing-it-up-in-new-york-1409714846 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |location=New York City |access-date=March 9, 2015}} During his four-year self-exile, he exhibited his works in the Netherlands and Germany, taught at the Università Internazionale dell'Arte, and lived in Chalon-sur-Saône, France where he maintained one of his studios on a barge until 1989.{{cite news |last=Bennett |first=Don |date=June 5, 2013 |title=Petaluma home to famous artist |url=http://www.petaluma360.com/csp/mediapool/sites/PressDemocrat/News/story.csp?page=0 |newspaper=The Press Democrat |location=Santa Rosa, California |access-date=March 10, 2015}} His French barge, Rêve de signes, has since been turned into La Vie des Formes, an atelier for emerging artists, which has been moored at Montceau-les-Mines since 2009.{{cite journal |last=Castro |first=Jan Garden |date=June 2005 |title=To Make Meanings Real: A Conversation with Mark di Suvero |url=http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag05/june_05/disuvero/disuvero.shtml |journal=Sculpture |publisher=International Sculpture Center |volume=24 |issue=5 |access-date=March 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117082647/http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag05/june_05/disuvero/disuvero.shtml |archive-date=January 17, 2016 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |last1=Roux |first1=Camille |last2=Berry |first2=Gilles |date=May 5, 2013 |title=Bateau logement pour artistes |url=http://www.lejsl.com/edition-de-montceau-les-mines/2013/05/05/bateau-logement-pour-artistes |newspaper=Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire |language=fr |location=Chalon-sur-Saône, France |access-date=March 10, 2015}}

In 1975, his sculptures were exhibited in the Tuileries Garden in Paris, the first living artist to hold an exhibition there.Karen Michell, [https://www.npr.org/2019/10/20/771413167/sculptor-mark-di-suvero-creates-joy-out-of-steel Sculptor Mark Di Suvero Creates Joy Out Of Steel], Npr.org, 20 October 2019 He later returned to the United States and opened a studio in Petaluma, California in 1975. While the Petaluma studio is still active, di Suvero moved to New York City and opened a studio there.

In 1976, the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan housed a retrospective exhibition of di Suvero's smaller structures, while the city of New York exhibited some of his larger sculptures all around town. His 1966 sculpture, Praise for Elohim Adonai, was erected in front of the Seagram Building. In January 2024, the work was permanently installed adjacent to David Chipperfield's East Building for the Saint Louis Art Museum.

He founded the Athena Foundation in 1977 and Socrates Sculpture Park in 1986, both of which function to assist artists. In 2019, his tallest piece, E=MC 2, was moved from France to the Storm King Art Center in upstate New York.Gabriella Angeleti, [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/storm-king-debuts-sky-high-sculpture-by-mark-di-suvero Storm King installs sky-high sculpture by Mark di Suvero], Theartnewspaper.com, 17 July 2019

Di Suvero lives in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City with his second wife, Kate D. Levin, who he married in 1993, and their daughter. Levin, a former City College of New York teacher, served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs from 2002 to 2013, and has worked in the Ed Koch and Michael Bloomberg administrations.{{cite web |url=http://www.smu.edu/News/2014/kate-levin-ncar-11feb2014 |title=Kate D. Levin named first fellow of National Center for Arts Research at SMU |date=February 11, 2014 |website=smu.edu |publisher=Southern Methodist University |access-date=March 9, 2015}} Di Suvero was previously married to architect Maria Teresa Caparrotta, whom he met while living in Italy, but later divorced.

Di Suvero broke his back in 1960, and his leg was paralyzed from the knee down. In 2018, he burned himself while welding and the leg had to be removed.Dana Goodyear (9 July 2019), [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/will-los-angeles-lose-a-beloved-piece-of-public-art Will Los Angeles Lose a Beloved Piece of Public Art?] The New Yorker.

File:Bunyon's-Chess.jpg at Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle]]

File:Entrance Kröller-Müller Museum.JPG and sculpture park in Otterlo in the Netherlands; in the background is the red K-piece by di Suvero.]]

File:Voxal (Declaration) sculpture by artist Mark di Suvero located in Venice, a beachfront district on the Westside of Los Angeles, California LCCN2013632382.tif at Venice Beach in Los Angeles]]

His early works were large outdoor pieces that incorporated wooden timbers from demolition buildings, tires, scrap metal, and structural steel. This exploration has transformed over time into a focus on H-beams and heavy steel plates. Many of the pieces contain sections that are allowed to swing and rotate giving the overall forms a considerable degree of motion. He prides himself on his hands-on approach to the fabrication and installation of his work. Di Suvero pioneered the use of a crane as a sculptor's working tool.{{cite AV media |date=May 2013 |title=Mark Di Suvero's Path to Steel |url=http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/558 |access-date=10 July 2015}}

His style is associated with the abstract expressionism movement but directly evokes the spirit of the Russian post-revolution constructivism. Constructivism is strongly associated with concepts of a utopian socialist reconstruction but came crashing down when the Stalin and Hitler empires failed. Di Suvero is the first artist post-war to revive the constructivist movement. The sculptures can be touched, and they are resistant enough to be climbed on.

Some of his work includes:

• Pre-Columbian (1964), acquired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 2000[https://art.famsf.org/mark-di-suvero/pre-columbian-2000170 Pre-Columbian], Art.famsf.org
• Bunyon's Chess (1965) at Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle
• Poland (1966) at Lynden Sculpture Garden in Milwaukee{{Cite web|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/di-suvero-mark/|title=Mark di Suvero Artworks & Famous Sculptures|website=The Art Story|access-date=2020-03-06}}
• Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore) (1967) at Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
• Snowplow (1968) at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indianapolis
• Victor's Lament (1969–1970)
• The Lovers (1971–1973) at Lynden Sculpture Garden in Milwaukee
• For Handel (1975), Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington{{Cite web|url=https://westerngallery.wwu.edu/mark-di-suvero-handel-1975|title=Mark di Suvero, For Handel, 1975}}
• Motu Viget (1977), sited adjacent to the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building in Grand Rapids, Michigan{{cite web|title=Motu Viget|url=https://www.experiencegr.com/listing/motu-viget/6180/|website=www.experiencegr.com |access-date=23 April 2025}}
• Inner Search (1980) in Minneapolis{{cite journal |last1=Flanagan |first1=Barbara |title=Artist welds his cold steel to steal sun |journal=Minneapolis Star |date=August 19, 1980 |page=1C |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1879019510 |access-date=August 21, 2023 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=August 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827223343/https://www.proquest.com/docview/1879019510/45EEFB15F75C4EEFPQ/111?accountid=14586&forcedol=true |id={{ProQuest|1879019510}} |url-status=live }}
• The Calling (1981–1982) at O'Donnell Park in Milwaukee
• Shoshone (1982), public art sculpture in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles{{cite web |title=rt Projects Mark di Suvero: Shoshone 1982 |url=http://www.crala.org/internet-site/Other/Art_Program/artist_list/mark_disuvero.cfm |publisher=Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles |access-date=1 November 2020}}{{cite web |title=Shoshone 1982 |url=https://culturenow.org/entry&permalink=07687&seo=Shoshone_Mark-di-Suvero-and-Community-Redevelopment-Agency-of-the-City-of-Los-Angeles-CRALA |publisher=Culture Now: Museum Without Walls |access-date=1 November 2020}}
• Iroquois (1983) on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia
• Old Glory (1986){{Cite web |last=Liu |first=Maura Gillan {{!}} Photos by Lani Hanson and James |date=2016-06-28 |title=If the UNL sculptures could talk |url=https://www.dailynebraskan.com/visiting_unl/if-the-unl-sculptures-could-talk/article_0016af58-3cb8-11e6-94aa-f330ad14b00a.html |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=The Daily Nebraskan |language=en}}
• Aurora (1992-1993), purchased by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from Gagosian Gallery in 1996[https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.96670.html Aurora – 1992–1993], Nga.gov
• E=MC 2 (1992–1993), moved from France to the Storm King Art Center in upstate New York in 2019, his largest piece so far.
• Scarlatti (1994–2000), Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan{{cite web|title=Scarlatti|url=https://www.meijergardens.org/sculpture/scarlatti/|website=www.meijergardens.org/|access-date=23 April 2025}}
• Galileo (1996), acquired by the Daimler Art Collection in 1998[http://art.daimler.com/en/artwork/galileo-mark-di-suvero-1996-2/ Mark di Suvero – Galileo, 1996], Art.daimler.com
• Joie de Vivre (1998) in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan
• Pax Jerusalemme (1998–1999) at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco
• The Sieve of Eratosthenes (1999) at Stanford University in Stanford, California
• Declaration (2001), a public art sculpture in Venice Beach in Los Angeles{{cite web |title=Declaration |url=https://declaration.lalouver.com |website=Declaration, L.A. Louver |access-date=1 October 2023}}{{cite web |title=Voxal (Declaration) sculpture by artist Mark di Suvero located in Venice, a beachfront district on the Westside of Los Angeles, California |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2013632382/ |website=Library of Congress |access-date=1 October 2023}}
• Ben Webster (2001), Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan{{cite web|title=Ben Webster|url=https://www.meijergardens.org/sculpture/ben-webster/|website=www.meijergardens.org/|access-date=23 April 2025}}
• Orion (2006) at the University of Michigan Museum of Art at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan{{Cite web|url=https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/25100|title=Exchange: Orion|website=exchange.umma.umich.edu|access-date=2020-03-06}}{{Cite web|url=https://umma.umich.edu/galleries/outdoor-sculpture|title=Outdoor Sculpture {{!}} University of Michigan Museum of Art|website=umma.umich.edu|access-date=2020-03-06}}{{Cite web|url=https://umma.umich.edu/content/orion-comes-home|title=Orion Comes Home {{!}} University of Michigan Museum of Art|website=umma.umich.edu|access-date=2020-03-06}}
• Clock Knot (2007) on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas{{cite web |url=http://landmarks.utexas.edu/artwork/clock-knot |title=Clock Knot 2007 |website=landmarks.utexas.edu |date=12 August 2008 |publisher=The University of Texas at Austin |access-date=October 1, 2016}}
• Paintbrush (2009) on the campus of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn

Di Suvero's sculptures and career were the subjects of the 1977 film, North Star: Mark di Suvero. The film was produced by François De Menil and by art historian Barbara Rose, and it featured music composed by Philip Glass.{{cite web |title=Philip Glass: Music |url=http://www.philipglass.com/music/films/north_star.php |access-date=2015-07-22 |publisher=unvagen Music Publishers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150819041105/http://www.philipglass.com/music/films/north_star.php |archive-date=2015-08-19 |url-status=dead }}{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} The film was released as a DVD in 2012.{{cite web |title=North Star: Mark di Suvero |work=DVD Verdict |url=http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/northstarmarkdisuvero.php |first=James A. |last=Stewart |date=April 19, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722203906/http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/northstarmarkdisuvero.php |archive-date=July 22, 2015 }}

In May 2013, some of his most famous sculptures were exhibited in Crissy Field in San Francisco.[https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/mark-di-suvero-at-crissy-field/ Mark di Suvero at Crissy Field], Sfmoma.org, May 2013

Some critics deny the novelty of di Suvero's art, arguing he just inflated an established concept to greater dimensions. In 1975, William Rubin argued he merely vulgarized the style of abstract expressionism set forth by Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. When Pax Jerusalemme was installed in a prominent spot in front of the Legion of Honor in 2000, Kenneth Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle dismissed it as "mediocre."{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/A-Legion-of-Concerns-Over-Sculpture-Di-Suvero-s-2713466.php|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle | title =A Legion of Concerns Over Sculpture / Di Suvero's mediocre 'Pax Jerusalem' may signal a troubling trend at Fine Arts Museums|date = 16 July 2000|author = Baker, Kenneth}} But remarking on the installation of the artist's colossal E=MC 2 at the Storm King Art Center, Jason Farago in the New York Times wrote that di Suvero "understands better than almost any artist the distinction between size and scale—and this serene work, breathing easy in Storm King's largest field, feels as approachable as a family member."{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/arts/design/storm-king-reopens.html |title=Storm King Reopens for the Art-Starved |website=The New York Times |author= Farago, Jason| date=9 July 2020}}

• 2000: International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award{{cite web |url=http://www.sculpture.org/documents/awards/life.shtml |title=The International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award |website=sculpture.org |publisher=International Sculpture Center |access-date=March 10, 2015}}
• 2005: Winner in the Arts and Humanities category at the 11th Annual Heinz Awards, which came with a $250,000 prize.{{cite news |editor-last=Sisario |editor-first=Ben |date=May 2, 2005 |title=Arts, Briefly: Heinz Awards |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/arts/02arts.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York City, New York |access-date=March 10, 2015}}
• 2010:
• Medal of the Archives of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution{{cite press release |author= |title=Smithsonian Announces Archives of American Art Medal Recipients |url=http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/smithsonian-announces-archives-american-art-medal-recipients-0 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art |date=October 6, 2010 |access-date=March 10, 2015}}
• Winner of the National Medal of Arts,{{cite web |url=http://artdaily.com/news/45394/Mark-di-Suvero-Among-2010-National-Medal-of-Arts-Recipients-Announced-by-the-White-House |title=Mark di Suvero Among 2010 National Medal of Arts Recipients Announced by the White House |website=artdaily.com |access-date=March 10, 2015}} presented on March 2, 2011, by President Barack Obama.{{cite press release |author= |title=President Obama to Award 2010 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/01/president-obama-award-2010-national-medal-arts-and-national-humanities-m |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=White House Office of the Press Secretary |date=March 1, 2011 |access-date=March 10, 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/02/president-obama-presents-_n_830435.html |title=President Obama Presents Arts, Humanities Awards To Meryl Streep, James Taylor |date=March 2, 2011 |work=The Huffington Post |access-date=March 10, 2015}}
• 2013: American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal{{cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=May 15, 2013 |title=E.L. Doctorow and Mark di Suvero Strike Gold at American Academy of Arts and Letters |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/e-l-doctorow-and-mark-di-suvero-strike-gold-at-american-academy-of-arts-and-letters/ |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York City, New York |access-date=March 10, 2015}}
• 2019: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, University of Michigan.{{cite web |url=https://president.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/07/Recipients-by-Year_1852-Present.pdf|title=Honorary Degrees Awarded, 1852–Present: By Year}}

• Park Place Gallery
• John Raymond Henry
• Abstract expressionism

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons}}

• [http://arts.gov/honors/medals/mark-di-suvero National Medal of Arts biography]
• [http://heinzawards.net/recipients/mark-di-suvero The Heinz Awards biography]
• [http://www.sculpture.org/documents/awards/life.shtml ISC Lifetime Achievement Award]
• [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/mark-di-suvero-and-di-suvero-family-papers-11585 Mark di Suvero and di Suvero family papers, 1934–2005, at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art]
• [http://socratessculpturepark.org/ Socrates Sculpture Park website]
• [https://www.hss.edu/great-performances-hip-replacement-and-recovery.asp Patients' Stories. Mark Di Suvero.]

{{MarkdiSuvero}}

{{National Medal of Arts recipients 2010s}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Suvero, Mark}}

Category:1933 births

Category:Living people

Category:American artists with disabilities

Category:American male sculptors

Category:American people of Italian-Jewish descent

Category:Artists from San Francisco

Category:Artists from Shanghai

Category:Italian emigrants to the United States

Category:Jewish American sculptors

Category:People from Petaluma, California

Category:Sculptors from California

Category:City College of San Francisco alumni

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:University of California, Santa Barbara alumni

Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American male artists

Category:20th-century American sculptors

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American male artists

Category:21st-century American sculptors