Carol Bove Takes Over the Guggenheim

 Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.
 

By SARA CEMIN

There’s a lot going on at the Carol Bove retrospective. No wonder, she’s been planning it for 10 years. The exhibit — Bove’s largest museum survey of her career — was thought of specifically for the iconic space created by Frank Lloyd Wright. Aside from showcasing works that have marked Bove’s career, along with new ones made specifically for the show, the Guggenheim is left spiritually transformed. At the ground floor, the public is welcomed with tea they can enjoy over a game of purposely-made chess. Up the rotunda, there are large beds discretely hidden within nooks almost like art objects themselves. There is even an interactive library in which visitors are encouraged to play with miniature Bove pieces and pick up books that echo her early paperback installations. In her New York Times interview, Bove explains that she finds 'museums to be full of microaggressions’ and wanted to create a more welcoming space that offered seating and amusement. An original justification, for what rather seems a childlike excitement to have the museum all to herself. 

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.
 

But these gimmicks aren’t too distracting from the works themselves, which are laid out so as to create unique tableaux at every turn of the rotunda. The most striking is the installation of sculptures on the first level, each about ten feet high, in Bove’s signature choice of colors — yellow, orange, green, purple, and raw iron. Framed by a low black wall, from the rotunda, the installation looks like a modernist tableau, but the space where these dancing steel giants stand is penetrable and transports you into what feels like an extraterrestrial forest. 

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.
 

Bold is what characterizes Bove’s works. Yet, there is an almost esoteric softness that exudes from the crushed steel and its adjacent circles. The works all refer to each other in a circularity that indeed fits the architecture of the exhibit. A row of round mirrors marks every floor of the rotunda, reminiscent of a lunar cycle and also echo Bove's wall pieces which seem to synthesize in two dimensional form the sculptures on each level. Though made in heavy steel — a weight that can be felt through the bluntness of the colors or the exposed iron — the pieces dance in a melodic movement that complements well the ascent up Wright’s spiral. 

As one treads towards its summit, we encounter Bove’s earlier works, which incrementally lose their color and their metallic weight in exchange for more conceptual and primeval installations. Those pieces, such as The Foamy Saliva of A Horse (2011), combine seashells, feathers, driftwood and other found objects in cryptic assemblages that refer to mythology and the occult. The helical climb brings us to lighter objects but with heavier concepts, finally reaching Bove’s shelf pieces — intricate installations of 1960s paperbacks. On the way back down, one perceives Bove’s progression by another melody. Each individual object, whether organic or manmade, through time is distilled into these striking sculptures which embody matter in all its gravity. WM

MORE IMAGES BELOW:

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.

Installation view, Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Photo by Marcarson.