Carlos Dorrien: The Nine Muses and Other Projects
Sculpture Terrace
June 20, 1997 – June 7, 1998
The Nine Muses and Other Projects, an installation of sculptures by artist Carlos Dorrien, is DeCordova's second annual individual artist exhibition on the Sculpture Terrace and Sculpture Terrace Gallery. Dorrien, a native of Argentina who has lived in New England since 1968, has exhibited sculptures in DeCordova's Sculpture Park since 1985. Dorrien works in granite, carving sculptures that are both abstract and figurative, and which reference ancient civilizations and other cultures.
The Nine Muses are a grouping of nine semi-figurative sculptures, arranged in rectangular formation on a 20 x 30 foot granite floor also carved and assembled by the artist. Pertaining to the nine muses of classical mythology who presided over the arts and sciences and were believed to inspire artists, the nine figures also embody the numbers one through nine, which in certain traditions are considered the primal organizing principle of the universe. Each muse is different, varying in scale, height, and degree of finish. Some have female torsos that are fully realized in part, whereas others are left much more in a natural stone state and show evidence of marks from the quarry and the sculptor's tools.
Like many of Dorrien's earlier sculptures, The Muses recall many sources in art and architectural history—Greek caryatid sculpture and the organization of Greek and Roman temples, figure carvings in Egypt and India, the cut-up stone walls of Cuzco, Peru, and stone sculptures by artists as separated in time as Michelangelo and Noguchi.
The Nine Muses will be displayed on DeCordova's Sculpture Terrace. In the Sculpture Terrace Gallery another aspect of Dorrien's work will be featured—his public art projects. Dorrien has been involved in public art since 1979 and his commissions have included, among others, art work for the Porter Square MBTA Station in Cambridge, Harborwalk sculptures for Logan International Airport, a large post and lintel sculpture for the Pawtucket Canal in Lowell, and sculptures for the Massachusetts Archives and Museum. The exhibition includes three models for public art projects and four photographic enlargements showing the art on site.
Carlos Dorrien, a Professor of Art at Wellesley College, lives in Wellesley and South Randolph, Vermont. He has exhibited his sculpture at the Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA, the Montserrat College of Art Gallery, the Fuller Museum, Brockton, the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. The artist's exhibition was funded with the assistance of a Faculty Award from Wellesley College.
