Contemporary Outdoor Art at the DeCordova Sculpture Park

Oct, 2012

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I hadn’t been to the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in many years, so I returned this past weekend to re-explore the park. I quickly re-discovered why I love this place so much. Located in Lincoln, it’s a short drive from Boston/Cambridge, and is a beautiful place to explore on a nice fall day.

The museum is amazing, and a particularly great place for kids, but for me it’s the sculpture park that’s the most fun. The park is the setting for modern and contemporary outdoor sculptures on 35 beautiful acres overlooking Flint’s Pond.

When you drive up the main entrance, it’s hard to miss the largest sculpture in the park. Lincoln, by DeWitt Godfrey, is an enormous (150′ long) sculpture of Cor-ten steel cylinders, rolling up the main lawn. The scale of this installation is impressive. As you walk along it, you get different views through the sculpture, and you walk through a huge cylinder to get from one side of the lawn to the other.

From the main lawn I continued my walk through Alice’s Garden. A stone pathway leads you over a small hill where there are sculptures tucked into the landscape, amongst trees, shrubs and grasses.

Eternal Presence by John Wilson, is a large bronze sculpture that was designed as a tribute to the history of black people in Massachusetts. I love this sculpture, it has a quiet majesty as it looks over the main lawn.

Figure from the Sea by Elliot Offner, is a female figure tucked in amongst stone, grasses and perennials. She’s intended to evoke a woman emerging from the sea, but in this setting it looks (to me) more like she’s emerging from the earth.

The path between the museum and Flint’s Pond offers views of a number of sculptures, either in a woodland setting, or overlooking the pond.

Endangered Species of New England by Alan Sonfist, is a landscape installation best seen from above. The leaves depict endangered trees, and the eagle depicts the endangered bald eagle. What I love is how the installation changes as your perspective changes. From the low path below, the leaves stand out like huge signs. From the museum deck up above, it’s the eagle in the lawn that reads the most clearly.

Fortissimo by Dorothy Dehner is a painted aluminum sculpture that stands strong in the landscape. The artist created this sculpture at the age of 92! It clearly depicts strength and permanence against its backdrop of mature woodland trees.

Donut with 3 Balls by Fletcher Benton is a huge Cor-ten steel sculpture that plays with geometry, form and balance. The kids at the park really loved this sculpture. Maybe its the recognizable forms, the size, or just the temptation to climb on it (which isn’t allowed of course….)

I think my favorite sculpture in the park is Humming by Jaume Plensa. I was lucky to catch up with a tour and hear some details about the artist, and the construction method of this sculpture. Humming is a large marble sculpture of a young girl, and it is incredibly serene and through provoking. The proportions of the figure have been stretched vertically, while the horizontal layers of marble balance the composition. These details make you really do a double take. Plensa constructed this piece through a series of manipulated photographs, 3D models and computer aided sculpting. It’s quite beautiful.

And near the entrance to the park is a playful installation, 4-Wheeler Rollover, by Okay Mountain. The tire tracks (while they look real) are cement and paint, and they trace the path of an out of control 4-wheeler before its crash. Fun and unexpected!

This is such a great place to spend a day exploring artwork and it’s connection to the landscape. There are so many more sculptures to see and write about, but these were some of my favorites.

Contemporary Outdoor Art at the DeCordova Sculpture Park

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