Shifting the Limits: Robert Engman's Structural Sculpture

Shifting the Limits: Robert Engman's Structural Sculpture is the first monographic exhibition of Engman's work in decades. 

Born in 1927 to parents who had emigrated from Sweden, the artist graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA, and from Yale University with an MFA in painting and in sculpture, after studying with Josef Albers. He is best known locally for his large public sculpture, especially works installed in Philadelphia such as Triune, located opposite City Hall. 

The exhibition focus is on Engman's more intimately sized sculpture and jewelry.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Whether you go or not, the book, Robert Engman: Structural Sculpture, published in 2013, presents his beautiful curved, minimal surfaces and clean abstract designs in bronze, steel, aluminum, and plastics. Engman's distinctive sculptures developed from his training and fellowship with some of the mid-twentieth century's most renowned art teachers and famous sculptors. More than 600 color images and insightful text, organized chronologically, reveal his warm character, his stages of development and the progression of his sculpture construction.