The sculptor and artist, who is known not only for his ambitious projects but also for numerous screenprints and color lithographs, will turn 70 in 2022. His artworks are an amazing product of exoteric ideas, pop art, and minimalism.
Early Life and Education
Jonathan Borofsky spent his childhood in Newton, Massachusetts. He inherited his interest in art from his father, and decided to study at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh), the Yale School of Art and Architecture, and Ecole de Fontainebleau.
From 1966 to 1977, Jonathan Borofsky spent his life in a studio in New York, where he formed his ideas about his future career. It is interesting that all these years while he was wandering around in search of ideas for the studio, he used to write down numbers in his notebook. This kind of meditation made sense, and when the artist had another thought, he made a sketch in front of the number that inspired him. Later Borofsky signed the new painting not with his own name, but with a lucky number.
In the late 1970s, a stack of paper filled with written down numbers reached three feet, the last number was 2,346,502. By this time, Jonathan Borofsky had prepared enough artworks to participate in the exhibitions of the Paula Cooper Gallery (New York) on a regular basis. The artist himself left the crowded metropolis and moved to the quiet city of Venice (California). Today his artworks can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Thade Gallery (London), Adam Humboldt Gallery.
From the beginning of the 80s, a new stage began in the sculptor’s work and life Jonathan Borofsky started creating grandiose three-dimensional objects.
Works
After having some temporary installations, which Borofsky was fond of in the 70s and 80s, the artist felt cramped within the walls of the galleries. His desire to implement his ideas in some large projects was a good step in the master’s creative potential development. Kinetic sculpture of the Clown Ballerina, made of aluminum and fiberglass in 1989, The Plastic Ruby (1990), and Walking to the Sky (1992) were one of his early artworks.
Hammering Man
This is one of the artist’s most famous sculptures that symbolizes the image of a worker. The first sculpture was made in 1974 and was only 3.45 meters high. This two-dimensional plywood Hammering Man was a part of an installation at the Paula Cooper Gallery, and was the impetus for having such installations all around the world and symbolizing the unity of all workers. The Hammering Man is a mechanized sculpture that has a hand continuously raising and lowering a hammer.
Over time, such installations have appeared in open locations in 12 cities in the USA, Europe and Asia. The sculptures were made of various materials – wood and steel. The largest Hammering Man, which is 72 feet in height, embellishes the area near the office of the Korean company Heungkuk Life in Seoul.
Man with a Briefcase
The installation took place in front of the entrance to the City Museum of American Art (Washington). The statue was a two-dimensional figure of an office worker holding a briefcase. By the way, the installation was given a number 3277542 due to the master’s habit of signing his artworks not with his own name, but with a number in his sequence.
Selected Exhibitions
The master`s artworks are constantly presented in the most prestigious world-class exhibitions, such as:
- Rockefeller Center;
- Kunstmuseum Basel;
- Whitney Museum of American Art;
- Philadelphia Museum of Art and others.
Molecule Man
It was the first aluminum sculpture created by the master in 1977 and installed in Los Angeles. It represents the idea that each of us is composed of air and water molecules combined into a single organism in the center of our world.
The 100-foot installation was a unity of three human silhouettes with numerous holes, each of which symbolized a molecule of a human body. You can see the Molecule Man sculptures in Los Angeles and Berlin.
Jonathan Borofsky`s creative potential has no limits, and we can definitely expect a lot of surprising artworks from the master that will help us think about the secrets of the universe and the relationship between people and our busy world.