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Joel Elias Shapiro (born September 27, 1941[1] New York City, New York) is an American sculptor renowned for his dynamic work composed of simple rectangular shapes. The artist is classified as a Minimalist as demonstrated in his works, which were mostly defined through the materials used, without allusions to subjects outside of the works.[2] He lives and works in New York City. He is married to the artist Ellen Phelan.
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Joel Shapiro grew up in Sunnyside, Queens, New York.[3] He graduated from Bayside High School (Bayside, NY) in 1959, at which time the school’s yearbook awarded him the title of Man About Town. When he was twenty two he lived in India for two years while in the Peace Corps.[3] He received a B.A. in 1964 and an M.A. in 1969 from New York University.
While serving his Peace Corp time in India, Shapiro saw many Indian art works, and has said that "India gave me the sense of … the possibility of being an artist." In India "Art was pervasive and integral to the society", and he has said that "the struggle in my work to find a structure that reflects real psychological states may well use Indian sculpture as a model."[3] His early work, which also drew inspiration from Greek art,[4] is characterized by some by its small size, but Shapiro has discounted this perception, describing his early works as, "all about scale and the small size was an aspect of their scale". He described scale as "A very active thing that's changing and altering as time unfolds, consciously or unconsciously," and, "a relationship of size and an experience. You can have something small that has big scale." In these works he said that he was trying "to describe an emotional state, my own longing or desire". He also said that during this early period in his career he was interested in the strategies of artists Robert Morris, Richard Serra, Carl Andre, and Donald Judd.[3]
By the 1980s, Shapiro began to explore larger and life-size forms in pieces that were still reminiscent of Indian and Greek sculpture but also inspired by the early modernist works by Edgar Degas and Constantin Brâncusi.[4] The bulk of these pieces have been commissioned or acquired by museums and galleries. Later, Shapiro further expanded his repertoire by creating pieces that depicted the dynamism of human form. For instance, his subjects were portrayed in the act of dancing, crouching, and falling, among others that explored the themes of balance, cantilever, projection, and compression.[4] His later works can have the appearance of flying, being impossibly suspended in space, and/or defying gravity. He has said about this shift in his work that he "wanted to make work that stood on its own, and wasn't limited by architecture and by the ground and the wall and right angles."[3] These can be demonstrated in the case of the large-size outdoor art he made for the Hood Museum of Art. The bronze piece was an attenuated form that leans over a walkway and its near-falling form is viewed as an energizing element in the museum's courtyard. This sculpture, like all of Shapiro's mature works, are untitled.[5]
Shapiro is Jewish and Jewish traditions have influenced his art works, including his frequent use of the color blue.[6]
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United States
California
- Untitled, 1978, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla
- Untitled, 1974, Gersh, Philip & Beatrice, Los Angeles
- Untitled, 1988, Gersh, Philip & Beatrice, Los Angeles
- Untitled, 1981, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Untitled, 1979, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Untitled, 1982, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Untitled, 1975, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Untitled, 1988, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco
- Untitled, 1982-1985, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
District of Columbia
- Untitled, 1989, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Untitled, 1974, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Untitled, 1975, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Untitled, 1975, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Untitled, 1983, National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Untitled, 1986, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington
- Loss and Regeneration, 1993, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington
- Blue, 2019, Video Wall Lawn of the REACH at the Kennedy Center, Washington
Florida
- Untitled, 1996, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton
- Untitled, 1988, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton
- Up/Over, 2007, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach
Illinois
- Untitled, 1984, Elliott, Gerald S., Chicago
- Untitled (Arching Figure), 1985, Elliott, Gerald S., Chicago
- Untitled (for G.S.E.), 1987, Elliott, Gerald S., Chicago
- Untitled, 1981, Governors State University, University Park
Indiana
- Untitled, 1984, David Owsley Museum of Art, Indiana
Iowa
- Untitled, 2003, Principal Riverwalk, Des Moines
- Untitled, 1985, Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Des Moines
Maine
- Untitled, 1984, Colby College, Museum of Art, Waterville
Maryland
- Untitled, 1985, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore
- Untitled, 1970, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore
Massachusetts
- Untitled, 1990, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge
- Untitled, 1997, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Michigan
- Untitled, 1975, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
- Untitled, 1985, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Minnesota
- Untitled, 1975, Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), Minneapolis
Missouri
- Untitled, 1984, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis
- Untitled, 1991, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City
Nebraska
- Untitled, 1984, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Garden,
New York
- Seven Elements, 2001–2003, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany
- Untitled, 1988, Museum of Modern Art, NYC
- Untitled, 1988, Museum of Modern Art, NYC
- Untitled (house on shelf), 1974, Museum of Modern Art, NYC
- Untitled, 1994, Sony Plaza, NYC - Donated by Sony Corporation of America to Storm King Art Center on April 19, 2016
- Untitled (House on Field), 1976, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
- Untitled, 1978, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
- Untitled, 1981, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
- Untitled, 2000, Rockefeller University, New York
- Untitled, 2004–2005, Albany Academy for Girls, Albany, NY
North Carolina
- Untitled, 1990, North Carolina Museum of Art
- Untitled, 1995, Davidson College, Van Every/ Smith Galleries
Ohio
- Untitled, University of Cincinnati Galleries, Ohio
- Untitled, 1977, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
- Untitled, 1989, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Pennsylvania
- Untitled maquette, 1984, CIGNA Museum and Art Collection, Philadelphia
- Untitled, 1984, CIGNA Museum and Art Collection, Philadelphia
Texas
- Untitled, 1975, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
- Untitled, 1975, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas[7]
- Untitled, 1984, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas[8]
- Untitled, 1985–87, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas[9]
- Untitled, 1986, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas[10]
- Untitled, 1986, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas[11]
- Untitled, 1996–99, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas[12]
- Untitled, 1977, Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth
- Untitled, 1977, Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth
- Untitled, 1990, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- Untitled, 2000, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio
- "Elements", 2004-2005, Northpark Center, Dallas, Texas
- Untitled, 2011, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston
- Untitled, 2019, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
Washington
- Untitled, 1980–81, Western Washington University Public Sculpture Collection, Bellingham, Washington
- Untitled, 1980–81, Restricted Owner, Seattle, Washington
- Untitled, 1990, Seattle University campus
Wisconsin
- Untitled, 1987, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Australia
- Untitled (chair), 1974, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
Canada
- Conjunction, 1999, Embassy of the United States of America, Ottawa
Denmark
- Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek
Note: Joel Shapiro's sculpture name is unknown in the Denmark section, so the name of the sculpture isn't there.
Germany
- Untitled, 1999, Köln Skulpture Park, Cologne
Israel
- Untitled, 1991, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
- Untitled, 1996, Billy Rose Art Garden, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Italy
- Untitled, 1993, Peggy Guggenheim collection, Venice
Netherlands
- Untitled, 1999, Beeldenroute Westersingel, Rotterdam
Sweden
- Untitled, 1979, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
- Untitled, 1982, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
United Kingdom
- Untitled, 1978, Tate Gallery, London
- Untitled, 1984, Tate Gallery, London
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