INITIAL ACCLAIM & SUCCESS
The First Epoxy Resin Period (mid-to-late 1960s)
Frank Gallo in Studio, undated; Frank Gallo Archives
Embedded Files
GIRL IN SLING CHAIR: The Art World Takes Notice
In 1963, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the Gilman Galleries, Chicago, IL. hosted one-man exhibitions of Gallo's art. When he resigned his teaching position at UIUC during 1964, Gallo had started to "show my work with the Graham Gallery in New York and with Felix Landau in Los Angeles." (The Graham Gallery, aka James Graham & Sons, is the oldest gallery in New York City owned by one family, operating since 1857; Felix Henry Landau was an American art dealer whose Los Angeles gallery was a showcase for modern and contemporary art in the 1960s.)
On October 17, 1964, the New York Times reported on "a new name, Frank Gallo," who had rented a room at a hotel on 59th St. for "a show of startling lifesize figures that seem to have been bred from a union between George Segal and Elie Nadelman." In early December 1964, Frank would be introduced to a national audience via the Whitney Museum of Modern Art's 1964 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture. Held in New York City, the exhibition ran from December 9, 1964 to January 31, 1965, and featured works by Milton Hebald, Sahl Swarz, Charles Frazier, Michael Cullen Todd, among others.
The then 31-year old artist, Frank Gallo, contributed to the exhibition via his work, Girl in Sling Chair, a polyester resin sculpture.
1964 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art
FRANK GALLO, GIRL IN SLING CHAIR, 1964
Catalog, 1964 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, 12-09-1964 to 01-31-1965
Whitney Museum of American Art
(Download here)
Frank Gallo, Girl in Sling Chair, 1964 Polyester resin; 35" x 23" x 33-3/4" (Download here)
Frank Gallo - catalog listing
Catalog for 1964 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture
Whitney Museum of American Art
(Download here)
In mid-February, 1965, just two weeks after the close of the Whitney Museum of Art exhibition, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City issued a press release regarding an exhibition of "recently acquired paintings and sculpture" that would constitute a temporary show from February 17 through April 11. The 80 selected works acquired by gift or purchase were arranged in four main groupings: 1) recent construction utilizing light and motion, 2) faces and figures, 3) recent abstract painting and sculpture, and 4) a gallery of works by older 20 century artists. Gallo's, Girl in Sling Chair, purchased within the past year, was part of the exhibit. His work would be featured along with pieces by William Copley, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Moses Soyer, Andy Warhol, and Mark Rothko.
Press Release, 80 Newly Acquired Works on View at the Museum of Modern Art, 02-17-1965
The Museum of Modern Art
(Download here)
Frank Gallo, Girl in Sling Chair, 1964
Checklist, Recent Acquisitions: Paintings and Sculptures for Exhibition
The Museum of Modern Art
(Download here)
Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko
Checklist, Recent Acquisitions: Paintings and Sculptures for Exhibition
The Museum of Modern Art
(Download here)
A GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIP, 1966
Following Gallo's arrival on the national art scene via Girl in Sling Chair, he participated in multiple high-profile national exhibitions in the mid-to-late 1960s. During this same period, Gallo received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966; per his accompanying letter seeking the fellowship, Gallo wrote:
"A John Guggenheim Fellowship would allow me the freedom to focus my efforts upon a larger conception--a group of life-size figures that would embody everything I have learned about my medium and the values that can be expressed in it."
Following receipt of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Gallo returned to the University of Iowa in 1967 to teach graduate sculpture. In 1968, he resigned his position at the University of Iowa to become the head of the Sculpture Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); he would remain at the university until 1995.
Examples of life-size figures that Gallo created and exhibited during this period appear below.
Frank Gallo, Guggenheim Fellowship Letter, 1966
Frank Gallo Archives (Download here)
Frank Gallo
Harlot (with unidentified male sculpture) and Frank Gallo, ca. 1968
Frank Gallo Archives
Epoxy resin; lifesized (Download here)
EXHIBITIONS FEATURING WORKS BY FRANK GALLO, 1965 - 1969
See below for exhibit catalogs and Frank Gallo sculptures featured in selected exhibitions.
Young America 1965, Thirty American Artists under 35, Whitney Museum of American Art, 06-23-1965 to 08-29-1965
FRANK GALLO: GIRL IN SLING CHAIR, 1964; CRITIC, 1964; THE SWIMMER, 1964
Frank Gallo
The Critic, 1964
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gift of Leonard and Evelyn Lauder
Polyester resin; 12" × 10-1/8" × 19-1/2"
(Download here)
Frederick A. Praeger, Publisher
Cover, Young America 1965: 35 American Artists Under 35
Whitney Museum of American Art
(Download here)
Frank Gallo
The Swimmer, 1964
Whitney Museum of American Art,
Gift of George I. Seney
Polyester resin and wood; 64-7/8" × 15-15/16" × 41-1/8"
(Download here)
Recect Sculpture by Frank Gallo, Felix Landau Gallery, 12-05-1966 to 01-08-1967
FRANK GALLO -- Multiple Sculptures, 1965 -1966
1966 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture and Prints, Whitney Museum of American Art, 12-16-1966 to 02-05-1967
FRANK GALLO, PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST, 1965
Catalog, 1966 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture and Prints, 12-16-1966 to 02-05-1967
Whitney Museum of American Art
(Download here)
Frank Gallo, Portrait of the Artist, 1965 (Download here)
Frank Gallo - catalog listing
Catalog for 1964 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture
Whitney Museum of American Art
(Download here)
People Figures, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York City, 11-19-1966 to 01-08-1967
FRANK GALLO, MAN IN A ROCKER, 1965, and STANDING BEACH FIGURE, 1965
Catalog, People Figures, Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City, 11-19-1966 to 01-08-1967
American Craftmen's Council, Museum of Contemporary Crafts
(Download here)
1967 International Sculpture Symposium, High Park, Toronto, Summer 1967
FRANK GALLO, RELIEF OF MAN BEHIND A DESK, 1967 (not pictured)
Mark Di Suvero
[Name not identified]
International Sculpture Symposium, High Park, Toronto, Summer 1967
Studio International
(Download here)
Charles Spencer
Toronto 1967 (excerpt referencing invited sculptors)
International Sculpture Symposium, Toronto, High Park, Summer 1967
Studio International
(Download here)
Manishe Kadishman
Three Disks, 1967
International Sculpture Symposium, High Park, Toronto, Summer 1967
Studio International
Painted Iron
(Download here)
1968 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 06-22-1968 to 10-20-1968
FRANK GALLO, GIRL ON COUCH, 1967
The 1968 Venice Biennale, held from June 22 to October 20, 1968 in Venice, Italy, was one of the most politically charged and transformative editions in the Biennale’s history. It became a flashpoint for the intersection of art, politics, and protest, mirroring the global upheavals of 1968 — from the Paris student revolts to anti–Vietnam War demonstrations. Artists and critics were questioning the institutional structures that defined how art was exhibited and sold. While the exhibition featured Pop Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art, the associated political drama eclipsed the actual art.
Gallo attended the Biennale with his father.
Cover of the Catalogue of the XXXIV International Venice Biennial Exhibition, Palazzo Della Biennale, Venice, Italy, 1968 (Download here)
Frank Gallo, Girl on Couch, 1967
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Galerie Chalette
Epoxy resin; 49-5/8" x 51" x 3/16" (Download here)
1968 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, 12-17-1968 to 02-09-1969
FRANK GALLO, MAN WITH NECKTIE (image not available)
A Plastic Presence, Jewish Museum, New York City, 11-19-1969 to 01-04-1970
FRANK GALLO, SEATED FEMALE FIGURE, 1969
THE CRITICS WEIGH IN
NEW YORK TIMES, June 27, 1965
The Sensation Seekers
Speaking of the "Redeeming Features" of the Young America 1965 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, Stuart Preston, New York Times Art Critic, writes:
"It would be unfair to the Whitney exhibition to give the impression that the majority of its inclusions ship into the category of non-art. This is emphatically not so. Over and over again one is delighted by triumphs of craftsmanship or design. Take Will Horwitt's semi-geometrical carvings. . . . Or how about Mary Bauermeister's remarkable constuctions embodying a number of natural and artifical elements. . . . Or, in another category, the sensous carvings of Frank Gallo's sinuous, not so faintly sinsiter waxy female nudes, latter-day representations of the femme fatale. "
(Download here)
Contemporary American painting and sculpture, 1965
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. College of Fine and Applied Arts
Allen S. Weller, Dean - College of Fine and Applied Arts and Director - Krannert Art Museum, opens the edition with an article titled, "Circles, Men, and Others," an extended essay about the relevancy and future of art exhibitions, the changing forms of art, and how "the image of man may be related to the surrounding physical universe." In particular, he references "prana"--the Sanskrit word for breath, life force, or vital principle--and how it can make objects seem to float:
"It is interesting to see this method emerge (quite independently, I am sure) in certain recent works. It is one of the distinctive characteristics of the strangely disturbing images of Frank Gallo, in which a kind of expanding interior space creates forms of peculiar resilience and buoyancy."
Cover, Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, 1965
University of Illinois at Urbana-Chanpaign, College of FIne and Applied Arts
(Download here)
Frank Gallo
Swimmer, 1964
Included in Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, 1965
Whitney Museum of Modern Art
(Download here)
NEW YORK TIMES, November 6, 1965
Cheery Week but Not for Art Dealers
While claiming that the environment is not great for art dealers, John Canady, New York Times Art Critic, states "meanwhile, the situation is cheery for the Saturday spectator." He then mentions several exhibitions worthy of the public's attention, including Frank Gallo's show at the Graham Gallery:
"These life-size figures, cast in epoxy, have the color and surface texture of ivory, quite beautiful in itself. Nude girls are crumpled into chairs (although the chairs are missing) and one is astride a saddle (also missing) whil another tumbles through the air. Now and then, in his second New York show, Mr. Gallo forces his effects to the edge of trickiness. But he hasn't gone over the edge."
Download here)
Art Forum, January 1966
Commenting on Frank Gallo's exhibition at the Graham Gallery in New York City, Dennis Adrian, Art Forum, lauds Gallo's eye for expressive movement and the informal feel of the sculpture. However, Adrian criticizes the artist's penchant for over-detailing the pieces, suggesting that it is done to obscure the lethargy of his sculptural process:
"All Gallo’s pieces, including portrait heads, have an initially ingratiating triviality. They are deliberately informal. His emphasis is very little on the formal problems of making a sculpture. Most of his effort goes into the telling pose. Acute observation, a real eye for the expressive moment, is Gallo’s gift."
"Gallo cannot resist noodling his surfaces with incisions, rubbed-in color, and idiosyncratic details for either anatomy or costume. For this reason his works have too many personal touches; but not the kind that come from the personality of the artist. Contrarily, they are attempts to animate works by giving each figure a specific identity. That Gallo must do this with profuse descriptive detail is symptomatic of the basic lifelessness of his sculptural invention."
Frank Gallo
Saddle Figure, 1965
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Gift of Fritzi Cohen in memory of her husband Edward Stone Cohen)
Cast epoxy resin on wood base
54-1/2" x 23" x 10-1/2"
(Download here)
Frank Gallo
Knee Bend Figure, 1965
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University Fund Purchase
Cast epoxy resin, ivory-white color, and incised decoration
32" x 16-5/8" x 16-5/16"
(Download here)
Art Forum, February 1967
Critiquing Frank Gallo's exhibition at the Felix Landau Gallery in Los Angeles, Fidel A. Danieli, Art Forum, suggests that the sculptures harken back to the voluptuousness of a turn-of-the-century 2oth period. Danieli also points out the inherent yellowness of the figures, despite the use of other colors. He recognizes the motion and compactness of the figures, albeit in an exaggerated manner. While acknowledging the whimsy and humor of selected female pieces (pictured to the left and right), Danieli concludes with comments about the depressing quality of the male figures in the exhibition:
"Not in intent realistic, Gallo’s sense of line and volume produces a rigid grace, stop action yet fluid, hovering between the death mask and precise stylization. His line is sinuous, the forms compacted. The quality of being effigies is compounded by the figures’ self confident removal, as if sunk within themselves; they are ghosts of a mannerist presence. Only Knee Bend Figure, Standing Beach Figure (1965), and Girl Running (1966) are easy and assertive, even humorous. The seated sinking figures and relief-like males fare poorly, so heavily oppressed, made shallow, and scarred are they. The show revolves around a creepy repulsion and a fatal attractiveness."
Fidel Danieli, Art Forum, February 1967 (Download here)
Frank Gallo
Running Girl, 1966
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, The Albert Pilavin Memorial Collection of 20th Century American Art
Resin and fiberglass
56-3/4" x 21" x 13 1/2"
(Download here)
(Download here)
John Canady, 11-25-1967, New York Times
Frank Gallo Exhibition at Graham Gallery, New York City
"His sculptured young women could hardly be more obviously unreal . . . Yet you could almost swear that out of the corner of your eye you catch then breathing. Their extraordinary presence is stronger than ever in this new exhibition, where a congress of females stand, sit or lie around the gallery with a casual reality so convincing that if you are there with them alone you are likely to feel like a freak."
View an expansive array of Frank Gallo's epoxy resin sculptures via AN EPOXY RESIN GALLERY.
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