Spanning over five decades, Sorel Etrog’s body of work has fluctuated and evolved through free standing sculpture, wall pieces, drawings and prints, executed in a multitude of mediums and materials. During his mature period of practice in the 1980s, Etrog began experimenting and producing simplified drawings and collages with steel sculptures and wall pieces following this process.
On these works produced during this “Steel Construction” period, Etrog states: “In the free-standing sculptures that followed, gone was the pedestal and the lost wax castings. I made maquettes which were studies for large outdoor works.”
“Three Totems” has a distinctly cool smooth texture to the surface of the forms, a departure from the more organic pits and divots intrinsic to the natural process of bronze casting. Harkening to the sleek texture of steel, this bronze sculpture incorporated the artist’s exploration into steel material and the sleek aesthetic it can create. The three totem forms incorporate Etrog’s signature hinge component from his previous “Hinge” period of 1972-1979, adding a dynamic dialogue between mechanics and movement and the possibility that these stoic forms may open and an inner world revealed.
