Artlog

Raoul Hague (1904-1993) is an important sculptor of the Abstract Expressionist generation whose work is recognized for its originality and powerful physical presence. His abstract yet figure-inflected wood sculptures became well known in New York during the 1950s and were included in the Museum of Modern Art’s 1956 exhibition, Twelve Americans. His sculptures were admired by critics Leo Steinberg and Thomas Hess and were sought by collectors such as Joseph Hirshhorn, Nelson Rockefeller and Burton and Emily Tremaine. Sculptures from this period are in the collections of many American museums.

Yet as Hague approached the age of sixty, he chose to put some distance between himself and the New York art world at the same time that he began to explore the potential of his material on a larger scale. He took massive, forking trunks of walnut and butternut trees and entered into an unrehearsed dialogue with the wood. Alternately respecting and challenging the natural structure of the material, he exposed hidden geometries and created formal rhythms. He juxtaposed void and volume, curved surface and defined edge, with a tremendous eye for the pure shape of the thing and the profile that shifts from each new point of view. The five sculptures in this exhibition are quintessential examples of Hague’s mature work. We present them at a time when there is a renewal of interest in the artist and recognition of his contribution. His sculptures have recently entered the permanent collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard and the McNay ArtMuseum in San Antonio, Texas. On view along with the sculptures will be a twelve-minute digital presentation that incorporates archival images, new photographs and information about Hague’s life, his work and his home and studio in Woodstock, New York. This is the seventh exhibition of Raoul Hague that Lennon, Weinberg has presented in twenty years; the most recent was in 2000.