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The meeting with Ursula was fantastic and Ursula herself is one of my favorite guests, easily. The presentation was informative, the documentary heartfelt and captivating, and her sculptures enthralling. With that being said, I felt as if the experience was short-changed the most from being purely virtual. Without having seen her sculptures in person, it feels as if I do not have the proper understanding of her art to ask the best questions. Moreover, as Ursula continued throughout her presentation and our questions, I felt as if I was unable to pose my questions in an effective manner.
Another aspect of not seeing her sculptures in person that negatively affected the overall feel of the presentation is the lack of intractability. One of the striking things about some of Ursula’s sculptures was that they encouraged passersby to touch and get intimately close to her art. This was something that I failed to talk with Ursula about due to the somewhat odd way we were going through questions. The hour or so we were able to know her were memorable, but I dearly hope that opportunities arise in the future to better understand Ursula’s genius, as this was the first virtual meeting that I felt that there was something that was missing.
I think you very effectively put into words one of the unavoidable downsides of the presentation. I have actually seen one of Ursula’s sculptures in person- although I didn’t realize it was hers before the presentation- by walking past it dozens of times outside the Barclays Center. I think that the aspect of having seen the sculptures in person definitely changed my perception of them. I don’t think the photo did full justice to how massive the sculpture outside of the Barclays Center is, and there’s definitely just an unspoken difference between seeing a sculpture on a screen and seeing it towering over you. On another note, I found it very humorous that as she was talking about the bad air quality of that intersection staining the sculpture black, I remembered how I had seen it being cleaned just a few days ago, when I was in Brooklyn to visit family. Although I am struggling to fully find the words, I do agree about the importance of seeing sculptures in person. I can’t explain how different the presentation felt once I knew I had seen Usula’s works in person, and how much more vivid and lively it made the rest of her works suddenly seem.
@Ash I’ve also seen the sculpture in the Barclays Center so many times and never thought to find out who the artist was! I said this in my own post but it really goes to show the many connections there are between New Yorkers. I think I’ve even seen her sculpture in Princeton and in Philadelphia as well as I’ve been to the two places where her sculptures stand.
I think that although it would’ve been great to be standing in front of one of her sculptures while Ursula spoke, there’s something to be said about how we were able to view tens of different pieces at once and “travel the world” through all these pieces that are located in different parks, galleries, and museums. That being said, of course I’d love to be able to feel the cedar and the graphite in person.Chalmers, yes, it was definitely sad that we couldn’t see Ursula in person or even see her artworks in person. Personally, I felt very cool to watch Ursula on documentary the night before, and then she pops up in our class and has an intimate conversation with each one of us, and I found it very cool to converse with someone who has a lot of experience, especially since she’s gone through a lot of events (Nazi-occupied Poland, immigrating into the U.S., hardships with her father, Plainville Connecticut, seeing Times Square in the 1970s). Nevertheless, I still wish we could see her in person.
But another thing that struck me about her structures was how close they have been, yet I didn’t know about it. Many of her sculptures used to be in New York City, with some being in Madison Square Park and another in Barclay Centers, and MoMA.
I’m glad Jane you got to see the sculpture in Barclays Center. It just comes to teach me to pay more attention to the artwork that is at our fingertips here in NYC, and make the most of it when we can.
I 100% agree with you on this one Chalmers. It would be a treat to have seen all the guests in person, but I feel like with Ursula especially, we were robbed of an experience. For real she was definitely the most interesting guest we had, and I really enjoyed hearing her interpretation of her own artwork. I really admired how passionate she was about her sculptures as well. It was almost as if she saw them as not her own artwork, but more or less her own manifestation of nature. From the wacky materials to the vaulting shapes, to the stories behind the art and their connection to the events in her life, Ursula definitely had a deeper layer of complexity to her art.
The degree of her recognition and accomplishment was absolutely misleading as to her personality too. She could have easily wanted nothing to do with the class, however, she was so grounded the whole time, answering all our questions and explaining everything to us so nicely. For me, the person behind the art is almost more important than the art itself as well, so I really was excited to see how down-to-earth Ursula was. It would have been a really cool experience to see her artwork live at some of the crazy venues it was featured at, but I’m sure I’ll be around those places sometime soon, and I’ll absolutely be keeping an eye out for her artwork.
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