Celebrating Beverly Pepper

Beverly Pepper
Medea, 2019-2021
Corten Steel
366 x 384 x 190 cm
12ft x 12ft 7 x 6ft 3 in.
Base plate: 2 x 240 × 200 cm / ¾ x 94 ½ x 78 ¾ in.
Edition 2 of 4

Radically curved planes open and peel away drawn from memories of the earlier dominate curves. In the end, I realise that the value of my effort in art can be measured by the surprise and renewal in the work as it emerges – finding the past and future commingling in the most unexpected forms.

Beverly Pepper, 2014

Today we are celebrating Beverly Pepper on her 102nd Birthday.

For Beverly Pepper, great works of art never stood alone, but were always related to their environment. Born in Brooklyn, USA, in 1922, Beverly Pepper initially trained as a painter with Fernand Léger in Paris before turning to sculpture in 1960. She exhibited for the first time as a sculptor in 1961, in New York and Rome at the Galleria Pogliani, with a critical presentation by Giulio Carlo Argan. Pepper’s pioneering Land Art, installations and sculpture are endowed with an uplifting essence that belie their physical size. Over the course of months, often years, spontaneous drawings become rigorously detailed sketches of potential work, followed by precise scale models that ensure fully realised sculptures do not lose the free-flowing energy of their initial designs. Each sculpture is individually fabricated – not cast – and so the resulting work retains a tangible vitality of workmanship that only enhances the material properties of the steel, with its rich and ever-changing patina.

Medea, currently sited on the lawn here at Roche Court Sculpture Park, provides immense presence and energy, sweeping upwards and engaging both the land and the sky. Medea will be included alongside 14 further monumental works by Beverly Pepper in Beverly Pepper on New York Ave, Washington DC, a major exhibition opening on May 1st, 2025, in Washington DC, USA. The exhibition will showcase the full range of Beverly Pepper’s art, including her large-scale environmental works, public theatres and parkscapes.