Peter Forakis
Encyclopedia
Peter Forakis was an American artist known as an abstract geometric sculptor
. The son of a Greek immigrant, he grew up on the Wyoming
prairie until the age of 10 when his family moved to Oakland, California. Eventually they settled in Modesto, California. Forakis was in the Merchant Marines from 1945-50. He served in the US. Military in Korea and Japan from 1951-53. He earned his B.F.A. at the California School of Fine Arts (San Francisco Art Institute
) in 1957.
, Ed Ruda, Dean Fleming, Robert Grosvenor, Anthony Magar, Tamara Melcher, Forrest “Frosty” Myers, David Novros and Leo Valledor, he founded the Park Place Gallery
(1963–67), a unique artists’ co-op space. Park Place became the prototype for experimental art spaces of the 1970s.
Forakis was a ceaseless experimenter and was conducting his own research during the Park Place Gallery time period. Although he began as a painter, his paintings became sculpture. His work quickly evolved in a 3-dimensional direction, with a seminal series of “3D paintings” (1959–62) consisting of brightly painted abstract constructions made from mostly found timber which literally “came off the wall.” Sadly, few of these works remain.
Forakis became fascinated by geometry and his focus became sculptural. San Francisco Chronicle
Art critic
Kenneth Baker credits Forakis as the “originator of geometry-based sculpture from the 60s”. In an article by Joanne Dickson titled “Profile: Peter Forakis” in the Winter 1981 edition of Ocular Magazine Forakis said, “Geometry…is a natural law that exists not only in my thinking and my blood, bones, and marrow, but in the universe and all its matter.”
Forakis embarked on his lifelong exploration of the cube and hypercube along with Four-Dimensional theories. Since the late 1950s Peter Forakis has been a prolific producer of sculpture based on geometric shapes such as cubes, spheres, octahedrons and rhomboids. Some of his best knows pieces include Daedules & Icarus (1963), Magic Box (1966) and Hyper Cube,1967 (Walker Art Center
).
In 1967 Forakis received his first monumental scale commission. Atlanta Gateway, one of the largest existing works of modern sculpture anywhere measuring 100 feet by 200 feet by 100 feet of tubular steel, spans a major traffic artery in Atlanta, Georgia’s Southwest Industrial Park.
By the early 1970s Forakis had begun experimenting with his “slots” technique, one of his signature achievements notable both as a unique language of examining geometry and for fabricating large scale works in steel without welding. Cutting slots into steel and sliding sheets together allowed large sculptures to be assembled using only gravity and the weight of the material. Archimedes Cube, (series, beginning in 1968) a signature piece for Forakis, has no welds, only slots. Of his monumental slotted sculptures are Sokar: the Egyptian Key (1974), and Jack London (1982) owned by the Oakland Museum and located in the Oakland Estuary
, Oakland, California
.
He exhibited his work in major sculpture exhibitions in museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
(LACMA) 1967 American Sculpture of the Sixties exhibition. His work has been seen on both coasts, across the US, and in Europe and Asia. He also won numerous grants.
, Smithsonian, Washington, DC.;
Dartmouth College
, New Hampshire
Hartwood Acres Art Center, Allegheny, Pennsylvania
;
University of Kentucky
Art Museum;
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
;
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California
;
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
, San Francisco, California
;
Denver Art Museum
, Denver, Colorado
;
Fort Wayne Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana
;
Interland Executive Park, Walnut Creek, California
;
Stamford Museum and Nature Center
, Stamford, Connecticut
;
Walker Art Center
, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
. The son of a Greek immigrant, he grew up on the Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
prairie until the age of 10 when his family moved to Oakland, California. Eventually they settled in Modesto, California. Forakis was in the Merchant Marines from 1945-50. He served in the US. Military in Korea and Japan from 1951-53. He earned his B.F.A. at the California School of Fine Arts (San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
) in 1957.
Art
In 1958 Forakis moved to New York City. It was during this time in New York in the late 1950s-1960s that Forakis emerged as a prominent member of the art world, and, along with artists Mark di SuveroMark di Suvero
Marco Polo "Mark" di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born Marco Polo Levi in Shanghai, China in 1933 to Italian expatriates. He immigrated to San Francisco, California in 1942 with his family. From 1953 to 1957, he attended the University of California, Berkeley to study...
, Ed Ruda, Dean Fleming, Robert Grosvenor, Anthony Magar, Tamara Melcher, Forrest “Frosty” Myers, David Novros and Leo Valledor, he founded the Park Place Gallery
Park Place Gallery
Park Place Gallery was a contemporary art gallery located in SoHo in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA, during the mid to late 1960s. Park Place Gallery was located at 542 West Broadway, on what is now LaGuardia Place just north of Houston Street in the neighborhood that is now called "SoHo"...
(1963–67), a unique artists’ co-op space. Park Place became the prototype for experimental art spaces of the 1970s.
Forakis was a ceaseless experimenter and was conducting his own research during the Park Place Gallery time period. Although he began as a painter, his paintings became sculpture. His work quickly evolved in a 3-dimensional direction, with a seminal series of “3D paintings” (1959–62) consisting of brightly painted abstract constructions made from mostly found timber which literally “came off the wall.” Sadly, few of these works remain.
Forakis became fascinated by geometry and his focus became sculptural. San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
Art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
Kenneth Baker credits Forakis as the “originator of geometry-based sculpture from the 60s”. In an article by Joanne Dickson titled “Profile: Peter Forakis” in the Winter 1981 edition of Ocular Magazine Forakis said, “Geometry…is a natural law that exists not only in my thinking and my blood, bones, and marrow, but in the universe and all its matter.”
Forakis embarked on his lifelong exploration of the cube and hypercube along with Four-Dimensional theories. Since the late 1950s Peter Forakis has been a prolific producer of sculpture based on geometric shapes such as cubes, spheres, octahedrons and rhomboids. Some of his best knows pieces include Daedules & Icarus (1963), Magic Box (1966) and Hyper Cube,1967 (Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
).
In 1967 Forakis received his first monumental scale commission. Atlanta Gateway, one of the largest existing works of modern sculpture anywhere measuring 100 feet by 200 feet by 100 feet of tubular steel, spans a major traffic artery in Atlanta, Georgia’s Southwest Industrial Park.
By the early 1970s Forakis had begun experimenting with his “slots” technique, one of his signature achievements notable both as a unique language of examining geometry and for fabricating large scale works in steel without welding. Cutting slots into steel and sliding sheets together allowed large sculptures to be assembled using only gravity and the weight of the material. Archimedes Cube, (series, beginning in 1968) a signature piece for Forakis, has no welds, only slots. Of his monumental slotted sculptures are Sokar: the Egyptian Key (1974), and Jack London (1982) owned by the Oakland Museum and located in the Oakland Estuary
Oakland Estuary
The Oakland Estuary is the body of water separating the cities of Oakland and Alameda, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. On its western end it connects to San Francisco Bay, while its eastern end connects to San Leandro Bay.-Crossings:...
, Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
.
He exhibited his work in major sculpture exhibitions in museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
(LACMA) 1967 American Sculpture of the Sixties exhibition. His work has been seen on both coasts, across the US, and in Europe and Asia. He also won numerous grants.
Teaching
- 1965 Carnegie Technical School of Architecture and Art
- 1966 Pennsylvania State UniversityPennsylvania State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...
- 1968-77 Windham CollegeWindham CollegeWindham College was a liberal arts college located in Putney, Vermont on the campus of what is now Landmark College.-History:Windham was founded in 1951 by Walter F. Hendricks as the Vermont Institute of Special Studies. The school's initial aim was to help foreign students improve their English...
, Putney, VermontPutney, VermontPutney is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,634 at the 2000 census.On December 26, 1753 Col.Josiah Willard led a proprietors' petition for a Putney charter which was issued by Governor Benning Wentworth of the New Hampshire Grants under King George II of England...
(Chairman, Art Department) 1972-74 - 1980 University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
- 1980-82 University of KentuckyUniversity of KentuckyThe University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
- 1961-65 Brooklyn MuseumBrooklyn MuseumThe Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
Art School - 1967 Cooper UnionCooper UnionThe Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
- 1978 School of Visual ArtsSchool of Visual ArtsThe School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
, New York City
Happenings
- 1961 Woodstock, New YorkWoodstock, New YorkWoodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
- 1962 Bridgehampton, New YorkBridgehampton, New YorkBridgehampton is a hamlet in the South Fork of Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 1,381 at the 2000 census....
- 1962 Ergo Suits, Carnival and Art Fair, with Allan KaprowAllan KaprowAllan Kaprow was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. His Happenings - some 200 of them - evolved over the years...
, Woodstock, New YorkWoodstock, New YorkWoodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county... - 1963 Welfare Island, New York
Public collections
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
, Smithsonian, Washington, DC.;
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
Hartwood Acres Art Center, Allegheny, Pennsylvania
Allegheny, Pennsylvania
Allegheny City was a Pennsylvania municipality located on the north side of the junction of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, across from downtown Pittsburgh. It was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907...
;
University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
Art Museum;
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
;
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
;
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
, San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
;
Denver Art Museum
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum is an art museum in Denver, Colorado located in Denver's Civic Center.It is known for its collection of American Indian art,and has a comprehensive collection numbering more than 68,000 works from across the world....
, Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
;
Fort Wayne Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne is a city in the US state of Indiana and the county seat of Allen County. The population was 253,691 at the 2010 Census making it the 74th largest city in the United States and the second largest in Indiana...
;
Interland Executive Park, Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...
;
Stamford Museum and Nature Center
Stamford Museum and Nature Center
The Stamford Museum and Nature Center, located in Stamford, Connecticut, is an art, history, nature and agricultural sciences museum. The property covers 118 acres beginning about 1/2 mile north of the Merritt Parkway and was originally a private estate.- Facilities :The museum property was the...
, Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
;
Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...