Alice Adams (artist) facts for kids

Alice Adams (born November 16, 1930) is an American artist. She is famous for her sculpture and site-specific (made for a certain place) land art from the 1970s. Since 1986, she has created many public art projects. These can be found in train stations, airports, and university campuses across the United States. Earlier in her career, her work with tapestry and woven forms was very important in the American fiber art movement.

About Alice Adams

Alice Adams was born on November 16, 1930, in New York City. She grew up in a part of New York called Jamaica, Queens.

In 1953, she earned a degree in painting from Columbia University. After graduating, she traveled to Aubusson, France. There, she studied how to weave and design tapestries at a special art school.

Her Art Career

Alice Adams has lived in New York City for most of her life. She travels often for her public art projects. Her career has changed a lot over the years, showing many different styles.

In 2002, she received a special award called a Rockefeller Foundation Residency. This allowed her to work at a study center in Italy. She is also a member of a group called American Abstract Artists.

Tapestries and Woven Art

After studying in France, Adams came back to New York in 1956. She brought a tapestry loom with her to create her own designs. However, she soon started to change how tapestries were traditionally made.

She began working on the back of the tapestry, adding texture and new materials. She used things like rope, sisal twine, and even found objects. These were mixed with traditional wool and cotton. Alice Adams and other artists like Lenore Tawney and Sheila Hicks helped move weaving beyond flat fabrics. They turned it into three-dimensional art forms. Her unique work was shown in a famous exhibition called "Woven Forms" in 1963.

Around 1963, Adams started using materials like tarred rope, chain link fence, and steel cable in her sculptures. She found ways to use knotting and looping techniques, similar to those used by sailors. But she made them much larger and used different materials. In 1966, her sculptures were part of an exhibition called "Eccentric Abstraction." This show featured art that was more unusual and personal, different from the simple, geometric art popular at the time.

Sculpture and Architecture

After 1968, Alice Adams' sculptures began to explore parts of buildings. She looked at walls, corners, columns, and arched ceilings. She continued to use flexible materials. For example, she would paint layers of latex onto old plaster walls in her studio. Then, she would peel off these layers and attach them to wooden frames. She wanted her art to make familiar spaces feel new and interesting.

She also used common building materials like wood lath (thin strips of wood). She would cover or partly cover wooden frames to make free-standing walls, columns, and arches. This work was shown at the Whitney Museum in 1969 and 1971.

In 1977, she started making outdoor art using old barn-building methods. She began working with large wooden slabs and beams. She also used laminated wood arches. These sculptures looked like parts of bigger buildings. Her art often hints at something larger than itself. It can make personal memories feel like shared memories about places we build. This type of sculpture was shown in New York and at The Museum of Modern Art in 1984.

Earthworks and Outdoor Art

Alice Adams' site-specific sculptures from the 1970s are a link to her later public art. Some of these projects used heavy earth-moving machines. For example, "Shorings" (1978) at Artpark and "Mound for Viewing Slope and Sky" (1981) at Princeton University used the shape and weight of the earth itself.

Other works, like "Leveling" (1977), measured the height of the ground. Her earlier ideas about architecture grew into actual building-like projects. "Adams' House" (1977) and "Lost House" (1979) used the idea of a house to represent shared and personal memories. In 2008, an exhibition called "Decoys, Complexes and Triggers" featured women artists who worked with land art in the 1970s, including Alice Adams.

Public Art for Everyone

Alice Adams' outdoor sculptures from the 1970s were often temporary. Her first permanent public art project was "Small Park with Arches." It was installed at the Toledo Botanical Garden in 1984. This artwork used wooden beams and laminated arches. It continued her goal of creating places where people could gather and interact.

Over the years, she started using new materials and shapes in her projects. For "The River," she worked with boat builders to use wood for a hospital common room. For "African Garden," a schoolyard in Brooklyn, she combined cast iron bases with laminated wood seats. These were inspired by African furniture. For "Glider Park," she designed suspended seating under steel structures. These designs allowed trees to grow through them. Later, she began using precast and cast-in-place concrete, as well as cast steel, bronze, and aluminum. Often, water and plants became important parts of her designs.

Two large outdoor meeting places on college campuses are great examples. "The Roundabout" in Center City, Philadelphia and "Scroll Circle" at the University of Delaware are major gathering spots. They both include water features, stone paving, seating, plants, and lighting. At The University of Texas at San Antonio, a simple granite fountain is the center of the "Healer's Spring" rotunda. In "Wall of the Tides," water flows over a mosaic, and spheres above reflect the water and clouds.

Two of her major works are important parts of airport concourses. "Beaded Circle Crossing" at the Denver International Airport has giant aluminum arches filled with colorful argon gas. These arches lean towards each other over a moving walkway. At the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, a large aluminum boat frame sits on top of three big limestone and glass platforms.

Working with Others

Alice Adams has worked on many projects by herself. But she has also often worked with other artists and architects. Learning about the architectural process, from ideas to building plans, has helped her own art.

Her first team project was in 1985. For five years, she worked with artists and architects to design the stations for the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. This experience taught her how to work with many different trades and materials. It also showed her how complex large building projects can be. She realized that working with others can make an artist's ideas even bigger. She later collaborated on designs for the MetroLink in St. Louis (1988–1990). She also worked on train stations like the Ronkonkoma Long Island Railroad Station (1994–1995) and the Montclair State University Station (2004). She also helped design the Midland Metro Light-Rail System in England (1992). As a lead artist, she helped create the art plan for the Charlotte Area Transit System (2002–2006).

Models and photos of Alice Adams' public sculptures from across the United States were shown in a special exhibition in 2000.

Notable Works

• The Roundabout 1992
• African Garden 1994
• Beaded Circle Crossing 1994
• Stone and Glass Gardens 2003

See also

In Spanish: Alice Adams (artista) para niños