Don Gummer

Don Gummer
Born	December 12, 1946 (1946-12-12) (age 64) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Spouse	Meryl Streep (m. 1978–present) «start: (1978)»"Marriage: Meryl Streep to Don Gummer" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Gummer)
Nationality	American
Field	Sculpture
Training	Yale School of Art

Don Gummer (born December 12, 1946 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American sculptor. His early work concentrated on table top and wall-mounted sculpture, but in the mid 1980s he shifted his interest to large free-standing works, often in bronze. In the 1990s he added a variety of other materials, such as stainless steel, aluminum and stained glass. His interest in large outdoor works also led him to an interest in public art.

Style

Critic Irving Sandler (writing in Art in America, January 2005) has noted that Gummer's work is recognizably rooted in constructivism, but also writes that "in extending and deflecting Constructivist art in a new direction, Gummer has rendered it peculiarly contemporary." Sandler also writes that Gummer's works "give postmodern life to classic principles of abstract composition." ^[1]

Biography

Gummer grew up in Indiana. He studied at Ben Davis High School, Indianapolis, and then at the Herron School of Art (also in Indianapolis) from 1964 to 1966. From 1966 to 1970 he studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, and then completed his studies at the Yale School of Art where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA), and studied with David von Schlegell.

Gummer's first solo show was in 1973. Since then, his works have been featured at two dozen solo shows at museums and galleries around the East Coast and Midwest. His work has also been exhibited in group shows.

Gummer's commissioned works have included Primary Compass (2000), a site-specific outdoor permanent sculpture at the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio and a sculpture/fountain in Historic New Harmony, New Harmony, Indiana. One of his most recent works is a stainless steel and stained glass sculpture titled Southern Circle, standing 25 feet (7.6 m) tall and weighing approximately 20,000 pounds, commissioned by the city of Indianapolis and dedicated in October, 2004. Another recent work is "Primary Separation", a permanent installation at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, completed in 2006.

Personal life

Gummer is married to actress Meryl Streep. They have four children: Henry Wolfe, Louisa, and actresses Mamie and Grace.^[2]

Public collections

• The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
• Chase Manhattan Bank, New York
• Chemical Bank, New York
• Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science, Evansville, Indiana
• The Equitable, New York
• Hiroshima Lying-in Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan
• International Creative Management, New York
• House of Music (1993) - Kitakyushu International Center, Kitakyushu, Japan
• Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark
• McCrory Corporation, New York
• Joseph E. Seagram Company, New York
• Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

References

1. ^ Deconstructive constructivist: over more than 30 years, Don Gummer has moved from architecturally influenced installations to intricate, large-scale sculptures that give postmodern life to classic principles of abstract composition | Art in America |...^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Meryl Streep at the Internet Movie Database

Books

• Don Gummer; Peter Plagens; Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science; Butler Institute of American Art; Indiana State Museum. The lyrical constructivist : Don Gummer sculpture (Chesterfield, Mass. : Chameleon Books ; Evansville, Ind. : Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science, 2001) (Worldcat link) ISBN 0915829703; ISBN 9780915829705; ISBN 9780915829705
• Douglas G Schultz; Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Eight sculptors : an exhibition (Buffalo : Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1979) (Worldcat link) ISBN 0914782258; ISBN 9780914782254
• Joseph Thompson; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Don Gummer : primary separation (North Adams, Mass. : Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, 2006) ISBN 0976427621; ISBN 9780976427629

Article

• Sandler, Irving. “Deconstructive Constructivist,” Art in America (January 2005), pp. 111–115.

External links

• Don Gummer's web site
• Sandler, Irving. "Deconstructive constructivist: over more than 30 years, Don Gummer has moved from architecturally influenced installations to intricate, large-scale sculptures that give postmodern life to classic principles of abstract composition", Art in America (January, 2005). A copy of the article, with citation, is available for reading at the artist's website.
• Indianapolis' Newest Piece of Public Art, Herron School of Art eNews, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.

Persondata
Name	Gummer, Don
Alternative names
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Date of birth	December 12, 1946
Place of birth	Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
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