Nivola: Sandscapes Part 3

There is a distinct quality to the surface of the sandcast. Over time and as his technique developed, Nivola would come to be so intimately acquainted with the beaches on Long Island near his home that he knew where to visit in order to obtain the precise color and texture of sand that he desired.

A further work in the series, Sardinian Shepherd (1953), is in the permanent collection of the Parrish Art Museum and on view through 2021.

Nivola realized this design for his last largescale sandcast commission: the lobby of the Legislative Office Building in Albany, New York. The Legislative Office Building, part of the Empire State Plaza complex in downtown
Albany is home to the Legislative Branch of the New York State Senate, responsible for drafting and approving revisions to the laws of New York.

Nivola’s relief is negatively cast, and he relied on these to execute his projects. The design consists of a series of abstracted figures contained within pronounced geometric forms, a detail that registers the artist’s unique sandcasting process.

The maquette’s grid-like pattern is reflected in the full-scale version of the work, although the divisions have been reconfigured. In the model, the four horizontal sections are split into five. The work in situ, on the other hand, emphasizes the vertical axis; the number of separate panels is reduced to four.

Nivola conceived a design loosely based on a newspaper spread for the façade of the Post Publishing Company in Bridgeport. The letters ‘T’, ‘B’, ‘P’ appear in the top right panel, the acronym for ‘The Bridgeport Post.’

The themes for the design were taken from the general categories of news—politics, family life, sports, the arts. For example, there are some playful details in the design including cutlery (two spoons and a fork) which are supplemented with other household objects in the full-scale version of the work and an image depicting the horizon of the sea, with sun above.

Other elements in the design are visible in the panels including the American flag, stars, and a boat, and several faces, heads and figures framed by the newsprint. Nivola adopted a wide-ranging visual vocabulary to convey the richness of the themes from which he drew.

There is some variation between the design and the full-scale work, indicative of Nivola’s spontaneous way of working, in which he repeatedly revised his compositions. For example, three naked figures in different poses, a band of little horses, and the panel with various tools. The overall structure, however, remained the same: each of the four panels of the design (of which one is now missing) is divided into five vertical sections, a total of 20. Each of these divisions is equivalent to one of the 20 panels that comprises the full-scale work.

Nivola’s design was conceived for the upper façade of the parking garage, a new steel and concrete building that formed part of the redevelopment of downtown Bridgeport. The top of the wall slants down towards the rear of the building and this is echoed in the panels which differ slightly in height and slant upwards from left to right (that is, in reverse, as the relief is negatively cast). The large-scale sandcast formed part of the structure of the building and its position took advantage of the natural light that animated the sculpture over the course of the day.

Finnish architect and designer Eero Saarinen was taken by Nivola’s unique ability to think in both architectural and artistic terms. He personally wrote to Nivola in 1959 to express his admiration for the artist’s work and to invite him to collaborate on his newest project: the Samuel F. B. Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Saarinen’s desire to create, as he describes in the note, “a whole atmosphere created by sculpture and bas-reliefs in relation to architecture,” was well-suited to Nivola’s way of working. The artist was asked to design 47 artworks. By the end of the project’s two-year duration this was reduced to 35, still marking it as one of the artist’s most extensive commissions for a public space.

In 1960, Nivola created an untitled model in preparation for this project. This work, on view, is unique within the exhibition space, as it is comprised of both a positive and negative relief. Displayed side-by-side, these casts evoke the artist’s unique sandcasting process: Nivola’s ability to think in both positive and negative terms and to imagine his work in scale indicates a mastery of both material and technique.

Untitled [Maquette for Philadelphia Continental Building] was envisaged for an interior space, the lobby of 400 Market Street, once occupied by the Continental Insurance Co. (hence, ‘The Continental Building’).

The building was realized by architect studio Berger Caltabiano & Ascione in 1970 as part of the redevelopment of the Independence Hall historic area in downtown Philadelphia. Nivola’s design consists of three panels.

Each panel is divided into five vertical bands that correspond to the total number of panels in the full-scale work. The design is conceived, characteristically, in a semi-abstract idiom, and comprises two rows of pared-down figures. The outline of two open hands visible on the figure in the foreground to the left demonstrates Nivola’s delicate handling of his material.

The figures anticipate Nivola’s later sculptural work made in bronze and marble throughout the 1980s. The artist kept very close to the composition of the work in situ and worked from the negative relief when he carved the full-scale version of the work.