Charles Ray, Walking a Fine Line With a Hungry Lion
Department of Art Professor Emeritus Charles Ray
Art Department professor emeritus Charles Ray is known for his figural sculptures that draw the viewer’s perceptual judgments into question in jarring and unexpected ways. The New York Times spoke with Ray about his new work, “Mountain Lion Attacking a Dog,” one of five new sculptures in the exhibition "Charles Ray: three rooms and the repair annex" at Matthew Marks Gallery, through June 16.
"The Los Angeles sculptor Charles Ray woke up at 5 a.m. and walked for four hours, as he does every day, both for his health and for solitary reflection time.
Only he was in New York City at the time, so he used Central Park. Energized, he got into a car and came up here to the Polich Tallix foundry in Orange County, to see some men about a lion and a dog.
Mr. Ray, who is known for his mysterious figural sculptures that “circle ancient themes and conventions,” as Roberta Smith wrote in a review, was finishing his painstaking work last month on new versions of a 2017 piece, “Mountain Lion Attacking a Dog,” for the exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea, through June 16.
The cast sculpture comprises two main pieces, interlocking where the mouth of the lion meets the neck of the dog — the killing moment frozen in time. And it epitomizes the artist’s enigmatic relationship with his subject matter. Even when he is sculpting a nature scene, Mr. Ray unearths something uncanny that can provoke a reaction.
You wouldn’t necessarily know it from his process, which is steeped in art historical and aesthetic concerns. Wearing a dark knit cap that hid his unruly hair, Mr. Ray agonized, meditated and philosophized about every aspect of the piece.
Just the seams on “Mountain Lion” have occupied his mind for a year — he doesn’t “encourage” them, he said, but it often can’t be helped. “Sculpture and seams are like boxers and broken noses: They go hand in hand.”
The five new pieces in the show represent a large portion of the work he has completed since his 2014-2015 retrospective, shown in Chicago, which may help explain why they cost between $2 million and $8 million each. For a major artist, Mr. Ray produces very little. “I work very slowly,” he said.
Mr. Ray had completed a sterling silver version with a rich gleam that made it hard to look away from. Next to it was a stainless steel version that required more polishing. “The stainless is like video, with all the realism and information, and the silver is like cinema, it’s warm and emotional,” said Mr. Ray, 64, who is known to all as Charley.
Some 40 people have had a hand at some point in the several-year process making the work. It began with having a real mountain lion in his studio, gnawing at a steak that was nailed to a piece of wood."— Ted Loos, May 13, 2018
This post is an excerpt, read the full article on the New York Times website.
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