Robert Ressler is an artist that has gained notable recognition for his large-scale outdoor pieces created during a span of over twenty-five years.  Dedicated to reaching out to the wide varied audience utilizing recreation areas and other public spaces, his carved wood commissions are often playful and representational in subject.  The sculptures originate from trees felled by park forestry crews or disease, donated to the artist, who makes preliminary cuts with a chain saw and finishes the carving with hand tools.  Other works follow a more somber direction leading towards abstraction, while retaining references to organic forms and objects.  Three works by Robert Ressler are on view at Grounds For Sculpture including Wave Hill, Aluna, and Baruch Ashem.

Wave Hill is installed on the grounds, and it was cast in bronze at the former Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture from the original wood sculpture of the same name.  The tall, tapering, long-necked vessel form is one that fascinates Ressler, as he has created many other works of that genre in carved wood, and in a range of sizes.  The artist recognizes the associations that these vessels have with female imagery and energy.

Aluna, another vessel-shaped sculpture on the grounds, further exemplifies the feminine figurative references in his work through its form and title.  "Aluna" a Pre-Colombian term used by the Kogi tribe, inhabitants of the Sierra Nevada mountains, refers to the mythical female principle underlying creation.  Ressler’s original wood version of the sculpture Aluna was the central form from a series of brightly painted wooden vessels by the artist exhibited at Wave Hill: Public Garden and Cultural Center, Bronx, NY in 1993.  In 1997, Aluna became the artist’s first work to be preserved in bronze courtesy of the Johnson Atelier.

Baruch Ashem, made of assorted hardwoods, consists of eight undulating columns which support a radial structure of stripped branches, creating an open roof.  The words "Baruch Ashem" are Hebrew for "Bless the Name."  These words are declared at times of great joy, of hope, or of relief.  The sculpture itself engages the space in and around it, giving it a sense of the sacred, and of protection.  The surface of the wood is most interesting to contemplate as it reacts with the elements, and displays an array of colors and patterns.

Ressler was given a one-person show at Grounds For Sculpture in the spring of 1998, which featured Aluna and the wood version of Wave Hill.  He has shown in other sculpture parks, such as the ones at the James A. Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; and at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY, for example.  Ressler has also been commissioned to create large-scale works for public parks and recreation areas.  In 1990-1991, he was an artist in residence at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, utilizing the park as an open air studio.  Robert Ressler was also selected to design the Brooklyn Memorial for the victims of 9/11.

More information on the artist can be found at http://www.robressler.com/.

Wave Hill, 2000
cast bronze
127" x 36" x 34"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
Photo: Malgorzata Mosiek
This work is currently on view in a traveling exhibition in Sarasota, FL.

Aluna, 1997
cast bronze
125" x 48" x 48"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
Photo: Malgorzata Mosiek

Baruch Ashem, 1989
wood, copper, concrete
168" x 384" x 384"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
Gift of Leonard Dobbs
Photo: Malgorzata Mosiek