Artist: Raymond Rocklin (American, 1922-2014)
Object type: Candelabra / sculptural candelholder
Period: Vintage, mid-20th century
Medium: Painted stoneware
Form: Abstract demon shaped candelabra
Inspiration: Buontalenti Grotto, Boboli Gardens, Florence
Decoration: Gold iridescent paint highlights on areas
Candleholders: Five built into the piece
Dimensions: 13.18 inches width × 9.75 inches height × 9.5 inches depth
Condition: Used. Wear consistent with age. Cracks along back. Several horns missing from top. Heavy piece. Please refer to photos for details.
Description:
This vintage brutalist abstract candelabra by Raymond Rocklin is a painted stoneware sculpture in the form of a demon or surrealist creature. The work looks to be inspired by the Buontalenti Grotto in the Boboli Gardens, Florence, a Mannerist garden grotto known for its grotesque, rustic sculptures of mythological and monstrous figures. The piece features gold iridescent paint highlights on select areas. Five candleholders are built into the sculptural form. The piece is heavy. Condition is used, with wear consistent with age. Cracks are visible along the back, and several horns are missing from the top. Please refer to the photos for details.
Artist Biography: Raymond Rocklin (1922-2014)
Raymond Rocklin was born August 18, 1922, in Moodus, Connecticut. When he was two years old, his mother died, and the family relocated from their farm in central Connecticut to New York City. Rocklin's father placed him in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York in Hell's Kitchen. He was later sent to work on a farm in Glen Spey, New York.
Rocklin's art education began with life drawing studies under Abbo Ostrovsky. He received scholarships to study at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where he won first place for sculpture in 1951, the Brooklyn Museum Art School from 1951 to 1952, and the Cooper Union from 1949 to 1952, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He earned a Fulbright Scholarship in 1952, which enabled him to marry Carol and spend the following year living and studying in Italy with some of the great masters of Italian art. That same year, fellow Fulbright recipient Milton Glaser also traveled to Italy, an indication of the influential circles Rocklin would inhabit.
Rocklin stood at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist art movement that began in the United States in the late 1940s and was one of the seminal figures who helped create this unique style of art. He was an original founding member of the Tanager Gallery, part of the 10th Street Galleries, a collective term for the cooperative galleries that operated mainly in the East Village of New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. The galleries were artist-run and generally operated on very low budgets, often without any staff. The Tanager Gallery was the first of these 10th Street cooperative galleries.
Rocklin's preferred media included bronze, steel, and wood. His work is characterized by deeply considered abstract forms and is ascribed to abstract expressionism of a poetic line, creating effects of depth in abstract forms with sheets of brass and copper.
Rocklin was a Professor of Art at City University in New York for over 25 years and also taught at many other institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum Education Department, American University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Ball State Teachers College. He served as guest artist at American University in 1956, assistant professor of art at UC Berkeley from 1959 to 1960, and guest artist at Ball State Teachers College in the summer of 1964.
Rocklin died November 19, 2014, at home in Damascus Township, Pennsylvania.
Museum Holdings:
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Provincetown Museum of Art, Massachusetts
His work is also held in numerous private collections, including those of Walter Chrysler, Mitch Miller, Ned Pines, William Matson Roth, and Colleen Dewhurst. Commissions include wall brass pieces commissioned by Mrs. Beskind, New York (1962) and Mrs. Nina Waller, Baltimore (1963). Additional institutional holdings include Temple Israel in Saint Louis and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Artist: Raymond Rocklin (American, 1922-2014)
Object type: Candelabra / sculptural candelholder
Period: Vintage, mid-20th century
Medium: Painted stoneware
Form: Abstract demon shaped candelabra
Inspiration: Buontalenti Grotto, Boboli Gardens, Florence
Decoration: Gold iridescent paint highlights on areas
Candleholders: Five built into the piece
Dimensions: 13.18 inches width × 9.75 inches height × 9.5 inches depth
Condition: Used. Wear consistent with age. Cracks along back. Several horns missing from top. Heavy piece. Please refer to photos for details.
Description:
This vintage brutalist abstract candelabra by Raymond Rocklin is a painted stoneware sculpture in the form of a demon or surrealist creature. The work looks to be inspired by the Buontalenti Grotto in the Boboli Gardens, Florence, a Mannerist garden grotto known for its grotesque, rustic sculptures of mythological and monstrous figures. The piece features gold iridescent paint highlights on select areas. Five candleholders are built into the sculptural form. The piece is heavy. Condition is used, with wear consistent with age. Cracks are visible along the back, and several horns are missing from the top. Please refer to the photos for details.
Artist Biography: Raymond Rocklin (1922-2014)
Raymond Rocklin was born August 18, 1922, in Moodus, Connecticut. When he was two years old, his mother died, and the family relocated from their farm in central Connecticut to New York City. Rocklin's father placed him in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York in Hell's Kitchen. He was later sent to work on a farm in Glen Spey, New York.
Rocklin's art education began with life drawing studies under Abbo Ostrovsky. He received scholarships to study at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where he won first place for sculpture in 1951, the Brooklyn Museum Art School from 1951 to 1952, and the Cooper Union from 1949 to 1952, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He earned a Fulbright Scholarship in 1952, which enabled him to marry Carol and spend the following year living and studying in Italy with some of the great masters of Italian art. That same year, fellow Fulbright recipient Milton Glaser also traveled to Italy, an indication of the influential circles Rocklin would inhabit.
Rocklin stood at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist art movement that began in the United States in the late 1940s and was one of the seminal figures who helped create this unique style of art. He was an original founding member of the Tanager Gallery, part of the 10th Street Galleries, a collective term for the cooperative galleries that operated mainly in the East Village of New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. The galleries were artist-run and generally operated on very low budgets, often without any staff. The Tanager Gallery was the first of these 10th Street cooperative galleries.
Rocklin's preferred media included bronze, steel, and wood. His work is characterized by deeply considered abstract forms and is ascribed to abstract expressionism of a poetic line, creating effects of depth in abstract forms with sheets of brass and copper.
Rocklin was a Professor of Art at City University in New York for over 25 years and also taught at many other institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum Education Department, American University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Ball State Teachers College. He served as guest artist at American University in 1956, assistant professor of art at UC Berkeley from 1959 to 1960, and guest artist at Ball State Teachers College in the summer of 1964.
Rocklin died November 19, 2014, at home in Damascus Township, Pennsylvania.
Museum Holdings:
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Provincetown Museum of Art, Massachusetts
His work is also held in numerous private collections, including those of Walter Chrysler, Mitch Miller, Ned Pines, William Matson Roth, and Colleen Dewhurst. Commissions include wall brass pieces commissioned by Mrs. Beskind, New York (1962) and Mrs. Nina Waller, Baltimore (1963). Additional institutional holdings include Temple Israel in Saint Louis and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
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