Serene sculptures on display at Norton gardens
When Boaz Vaadia arrived in New York in 1975 to study art, he thought he’d made the biggest mistake in his life.
Vaadia, who had been raised in a small farming community in Israel, was deeply connected to the land. Living in SoHo, then a downtrodden commercial and industrial area, he was surrounded by urban blight.
His panic didn’t last long. “Within one week I recognized that the urban environment of New York is as natural as my village, and it’s actually the natural habitat of humans,” he said in a video made for his 2016 retrospective at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.
He began to look for materials in the streets around his home. His eye fell on the bluestone sidewalk paving and slate roof tiles that were being turned into debris as the sidewalks were replaced and buildings demolished. He
carted the stuff to his studio and discovered an affinity for stone that would last throughout his career.
About 14 works dating from 1993 to 2017 are on view in “Celebrating Boaz Vaadia (1951-2017)” at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach. They range from table-top pieces to a largescale grouping arrayed on the east lawn.
Vaadia is best known works for his generic figures made from layers of rock. They adorn sculpture parks, commercial buildings, and private and museum collections around the world.
He wanted his sculptures to be “contemplative and serene,” he said in his artist’s statement. They’re often compared to sculptures of the Buddha or ancient Egyptian statues.
“He saw in this rock that he was only here for a moment in time and that people are part of the Earth,” said gallery owner Deborah Sponder, who organized the exhibition. “I think that people get that in his work. They’re very philosophical.” Sponder’s mother, Elaine Baker, began representing Vaadia 30 years ago.
The exhibition is a partnership with the art fair Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary.
The sculptures “are organically comfortable set against the lawn and backdrop of trees,” said Roger Ward, the sculpture gardens’ president and chief executive officer. “They look like they’ve been there forever.” In addition, collectors in the area own Vaadia’s work, it’s accessible to those who are unfamiliar with it and his death in February 2017 has sparked interest in his art, he said.
Vaadia’s signature style evolved out of the stubbornness of stone.
When he first began working with found rocks, they weren’t very cooperative. When he tried carving the sedimentary rocks, they split into layers. He gave up trying to fight that and instead worked with the stones, slivering them into layers, carving the layers and stacking them to form sculptures.
Many of the works are titled with Biblical names such as “Shimshon,” the Hebrew version of Samson, and “Asa,” the greatgrandson of King Solomon. Most often the models were people Vaadia knew, their essence captured not by detailed features but by posture and body structure.
“Omri & Shemaryahu” is an example. It features two male figures, one standing with his foot on a boulder and the other seated on it.
Vaadia was collecting boulders unearthed during street work near his studio, which by then he’d moved to Brooklyn, when he made friends with the workers, Sponder said.
“The workers became so close with him that they started to help him,” she said. “They would sit around on the rocks and have lunch. That’s how he started doing men with boulders.”
Nearly all the works are for sale, with a portion benefiting the Ann Norton.
All but one combine bronze figures with stone components. The only allstone sculpture is “Tai,” a 4-foot-5-inch tall bluestone head positioned at the entrance.
Because Vaadia carved all his stone sculptures himself, the pace of production was slow. He began casting select stone figures in bronze in the late 1980s.
Most of his stone pieces are in museums or private
collections, Sponder said.