A New Commission by Ursula von Rydingsvard

An exceptional sculpture by Ursula von Rydingsvard has been commissioned to highlight the entrance to the new Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. 

The nineteen-foot-tall untitled work is von Rydingsvard’s first sculpture made primarily of copper. Her full-sized maquette, created using stacked, texturized cedar beams shaped with a circular saw, took six months to build. The finished piece—made of more than 3,000 painstakingly hand-hammered copper pieces—will emulate the texture of the wooden model and is being fabricated by the metal artist Richard Webber and a team of skilled craftspeople.

Born in Germany in 1942 and based in Brooklyn for more than thirty years, von Rydingsvard is known for monumental abstract cedar towers that she incises repetitively and methodically—typically with a hand-wielded cirucular saw—and that alternately refer to personal history, the landscape, everyday objects, and the body. Her work is included in major museums around the world, and in 2014 the International Sculpture Center awarded her its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Princeton University boasts one of the most significant public art collections in the United States. A campus art initiative, launched in 2008 to expand the collection with work by living artists, is currently undertaking numerous commissions and loans. This most recent addition to Princeton’s outdoor sculpture collection will be installed in late summer and dedicated in spring 2016 with the new building, designed by architects Tod Williams, Princeton class of 1965, and Billie Tsien. A selection of the artist’s work will be installed in the Museum galleries this fall.