Sculptor Gregory Steel: Putting Ideas into Practice
Born and raised in Detroit, Gregory Steel has been a working
artist long before receiving his advanced academic degrees in art.
He also has a doctorate in philosophy, making him a man of ideas
as much as a master of construction. We are living in theoretical
times, which sometimes dominate and erode art’s capacity for
visual pleasure. But Steel, despite forty years of study of both
Western and Asian philosophy, knows that the primary impact of
art is visual. One of his most striking sculptures is called Iki
(2018), a Japanese term meaning stylishness. It consists of two
sets of rods, steel blue in color, set on the edge of a thin limestone
slab, nearly white in hue. The elegance of the sculpture cannot be
denied, and this, it seems, is what Steel is after: a pronounced
poise created from the virtuous use of materials, along with an
intellectual orientation informing the solid construction of simpler
shapes.
The tradition of steel sculpture is highly evident in Steel’s art. On
seeing his work, one often thinks of the precedent structures of
David Smith and Anthony Caro. But the Japanese elegance of Iki
also informs Steel’s work. Steel’s formalist abstractions often
seem to chart philosophical concepts which make him an artist of
greater import than if he were just describing visual structures. In
Spirit Path (2018), also made of steel and limestone, a circle
consisting of steel rods is attached to two flat panels of steel which
in turn, suggest two ascending paths. The panels, in turn, are
joined to a roughly contoured boulder, indicating a living presence
outside the one we know. At the base of the panels are two
circular disks--such shapes have often signified unlimitedness.
Binary ideas permeate this work, as well as Steel’s other
sculptures, pointing the way to visual choices that ultimately
support one another and lead to the same conclusion.
Still (2020) might be described as an abstract still life. It consists
of two groups of steel rods, wrapped tightly by metal bands. These
two groups are supported by vertical ovals of steel; one set rises
above the ovals while the other goes no further than the oval’s
highest point. Everything is colored a rust-red. The title might just
as easily be directed toward the mind’s stillness in contemplation.
But with Still we are not reading philosophy- we are experiencing
a state of being. In Still Standing (2020), Steel has set up two
dark, vertical steel beams, with another, shorter beam crossing
both near the top of the work. The title refers to the angle
downward of the two verticals, which makes them seem as if they
were about to tip over creating a delicate balancing act.
Yuugen (2018), a Japanese term meaning a deep awareness of
the universe, is indicated in Steel’s welded-steel work, which is
composed of slightly curving steel-blue planks with
rims rising on both edges of the steel planes. It is another beautiful
piece about balance. The artwork consists of a curving piece of steel,
and another curving beam steel beam crosses it toward the top.
At the bottom of the sculpture is another beam, very near which a couple of
steel disks occur. The color of all the components is an exquisite
gray-blue. The notion of balance and equanimity, achieved by
long stays in meditation is central to Zen Buddhism.Yuugen
embraces the awareness that comes from the contemplative
mind. Like most of Steel’s works, it embodies a quiet that is as
much Asian as it is Western, although the language of Western
abstract sculpture is predominant. Ultimately, Steel is a master of
sculpture that describes the delicate balance between space and
being.
Jonathan Goodman
JONATHAN GOODMAN
Jonathan Goodman is a writer in New York who has written for Artcritical, Artery, and the Brooklyn Rail, among other publications.