Storm King Art Center

On Saturday we braved the heat and drove about an hour north to the Storm King Art Center, located in the Hudson Valley. It's a 500-acre sculpture park, filled with both large-scale and smaller works. One of the things I loved about it is how it seems like an unexpected location to happen upon a work of art; every turn brought a new surprise to explore.

This one by Alexander Calder strangely reminds me of a dinosaur. In fact, a lot of them had that feeling for me (I suppose the size is probably what does it mostly, though for this one the shape is also a factor).



Alexander Liberman's "colossally scaled compositions are constructed from discarded tank drums, boiler heads, giant pipes, and steel beams." I mostly like the bright red color.

This one, entitled "Sea Change," is motorized, so that the two steel rods are constantly moving, changing shape, dancing through the air.

This one also moves, though by wind power alone. On a windy day it might have made more of an impact, but at the time it was just barely swaying in the near-nonexistent breeze.


This untitled work by Robert Grosvenor "was intended to mimic the effect of a mountain emerging out of a plateau," according to the Storm King website. We noticed a number of paw prints on it, imagining a giant catwalk for the local wildlife.

We were pretty amazed at this seemingly gravity-defying sculpture (I've unintentionally photographed it as though it is about to squash that little blue sculpture in the distance), though the Storm King site explains the phenomenon: "The two hollow steel boxes are bolted together and welded at the top, and a counterbalancing support anchors the piece into the ground."

You could almost miss this extremely creepy series of faces that seem to be emerging from the ground, courtesy of Nam June Paik.

We didn't cover everything, mainly because after a couple of hours we were feeling pretty wiped out from the heat. But I'd like to go back some time in the fall and check out the rest of it. You know, when I don't end up drenched in sweat just walking around.