Beverly Pepper

In contrast to her horizontally disposed “Web” series of 1976-77, characterized by dynamic and precarious-looking arrangements of welded steel slats, BEVERLY PEPPER’s new works are vertically oriented, stable and contained. Their origins are in a group of small cast pieces, made first in wood, in 1977. They also allude to ancient monumental sculpture—particularly Roman columns and obelisks. But far from aping any ancient originals, Pepper’s columns, spirals, wedges, and gateways are highly individualized and have a bold, aggressive cut and no-nonsense strength about them, distinctly American,

print February 1980

Seeing Between the Pages

TO ASK WHAT FILIPPO TOMMASO MARINETTI, the poet-founder of Futurism, and People, the blockbuster magazine of the 1970s, have in common is to raise the issue of modernist art’s relation to the media, which, ever with us, is at the heart of this discussion. What links them is, first and foremost, the modernist revolution in typography and layout which really got going with Marinetti and was put to the test with People. Then, not unrelated to the above, there’s their contents to consider. Both embrace all of life, celebrate its dynamic and dissonant qualities, turn it into a cult of personality.