Mark Lindquist (born 1949) is an Americansculptor in wood,[1]artist, author, and photographer. Lindquist is a major figure in the redirection and resurgence of woodturning in the United States beginning in the early 1970s.[2] His communication of his ideas through teaching, writing, and exhibiting, has resulted in many of his pioneering aesthetics and techniques becoming common practice.[3][4] In the exhibition catalog for a 1995 retrospective of Lindquist's works at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, his contributions to woodturning and wood sculpture are described as "so profound and far-reaching that they have reconstituted the field".[4] He has often been credited with being the first turner to synthesize the disparate and diverse influences of the craft field with that of the fine arts world.[5][6]
Early achievements
Lindquist's work is characterized by an empathy with the natural aesthetics of wood, technical innovation, and art historical connections.[2][6] Among his notable early achievements was the introduction of the aesthetic of Asian ceramics into American woodturning.[2][3][7] Along with his father, wood-turning pioneer Mel Lindquist,[2][8] he also developed new tools and techniques that expanded the vocabulary of woodturning, and pioneered the use of spalted wood.[1][9][10] In the early 1980s, he applied techniques he had developed for large-scale woodturning to create his massive, textured "Totemic Series Sculptures,"[11][12] in the Modernist tradition of Brâncuși.[2][13]
Ichiboku series
Beginning in 1985, Lindquist created his "Ichiboku series" sculptures:[14] six- to eight-foot-tall (1.8–2.4 m) sculptures from a single block of wood, applying the philosophy and techniques of ninth-century Japanese Buddhist woodcarving to the formal concepts of Modernism. Unlike his earlier works, woodturning was not the primary method for their creation.[6][15][16] These sculptures were exhibited in 1990 along with seven other influential sculptors of the decade (including Raoul Hague and Ursula von Rydingsvard).[17] Lindquist's "Ichiboku" sculptures distinguished themselves from others in the exhibition, and from the work of most wood artists of the time, by their identification with the spirit of the tree, a concept he adopted from the Japanese.[6] Rather than imposing an external idea upon the wood, he "was engaged in a dialogue with trees";[16] This approach was antithetical to the mainstream of 20th-century art, which was intellectually removed from the appreciation of nature.[16]
Reinventing Sculpture, (Keynote speech given at the launch of Wood Turning In North America Since 1930 at The Minneapolis Institute of The Arts)[3][18] (Woodturning Center Archives, Philadelphia, PA)
^ abcdeAdamson, Glen; Cooke, Edward S. Jr. (July 1, 2003). Wood Turning in America Since 1930. Milan, Italy: Wood Turning Center and Yale University Art Gallery. ISBN978-0-89467-094-7.
^ abHobbs, Robert Carlton (January 1996). Mark Lindquist: Revolutions in Wood. University of Washington Press. ISBN978-0-295-97506-1.
^Leach, Mark Richard; Monroe, Michael W.; Ramljak,Suzanne (2000). A Passion for Wood (Monroe essay) Turning Wood into Art : The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection. US / Japan: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York. p. 44. ISBN978-0-8109-4483-1.
^ abcdGear, Josephine (April 1994). Eight Contemporary Sculptors: Beyond Nature, Wood Into Art. The Lowe Art Museum / University of Miami. p. 192.
^Leach, Mark Richard; Monroe, Michael W.; Ramljak,Suzanne (2000). Turning Wood into Art : The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection. US / Japan: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York. ISBN978-0-8109-4483-1.
^Martin, Terry (October 2008). Icons: A Tribute to Mel Lindquist. Hong Kong: Shore Design / Rakova Brecker Gallery. pp. 1–12, 20–28.
^Lindquist, Mark (1990) [1986]. Sculpting Wood: Contemporary Tools and Techniques. U.S.: Davis Publications Inc., and Sterling Press. ISBN978-0-87192-228-1.
^"Mark Lindquist: Sculptor in Wood". Smithsonian American Art Museum (formerly National Museum of American Art). c. 1995. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
^Paul J., Smith; Edward Lucie-Smith (1993). American Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical. Japan: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, New York. p. 71. ISBN978-1-55584-023-5.
^Nelson, Hal (November 2006). The Presence of Absence: Exploring the Void in Contemporary Wood Sculpture. US: Collectors of Wood Art (Organization). pp. Exhibition Catalog.
^ abcKoplos, Janet (April 1990). "Review: Mark Lindquist at Franklin Parrasch". Art in America. 78 (4).
^Hobbs, Robert (March–April 1990). "Mark Lindquist: Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NY (Review)". Sculpture. 9 (2).
^Lindquist, Mark (November 1, 2001). "Reinventing Sculpture". Wood Turning In North America Since 1930 - Symposium II. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts: Wood Turning Center, PA / Yale University, CT.