Public Art – Monet’s Bench

Arm outstretched with a deft paintbrush to an easel, Claude Monet, the celebrated French Impressionist painter, sits on a bronze bench at the backside of the Firehouse Arts Center, 4444 Railroad Ave. Sculpture artist Gary Lee Price captures in detail the relaxed flow of the hand, the intense and maybe blurry stare in a momentary vision of Monet’s Plein-air painting. Crumpled tubes of oil paint lie askew in Monet’s painter’s box next to three aligned brushes.  A draped cloth looks to escape the confinement and falls over the side. Yet Monet is transfixed.  His face shrouded in a long beard tells of worn years. Monet’s solid body tells another story. He balances a pallet on his relaxed bent knee with young command. While Monet strove to avoid detail and convey an impression of a scene, Price barters his realism of Monet for the viewer’s perception of a complex man.

Privately donated in 2010 by Gary and Nancy Harrington, the bronze sculpture Monet’s Bench is 53 inches in height, 60 inches in width, and 58 inches in depth. At 450 pounds, it is both imposing and inviting. It begs for a closer look at the genius whose eight 14 feet wide paintings encircle the Musee de L’Orangerie in Paris. The 1927 Parisian exhibit is all-encompassing. It immerses the viewer in an elliptical illusion of his famous garden at Giverny and floats the mind into a never-ending parade of waterlilies, touching neither horizon nor shore.

Waterlilies, ponds, and a graceful Japanese bridge are hallmark visages in Monet’s work. Look carefully at the bronze easel Monet is painting – discover the impressions of a pond, weeping branches, and a trace of water lilies. Throughout Monet’s lifetime, he amassed an impressive collection of Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints. The Japanese-style bridge and waterlily pond that he designed in Giverny became Monet’s predominating subject matter in the last decades of his life as his cataract-damaged eyesight was failing.

Sculpture artist Gary Lee Price is an acclaimed artist.  His works include public and private collections, in museums, libraries, corporations, and educational institutions. Locally you can also view his work at the Santa Clara City Library and the University of California, Berkeley. Price has been sculpting for over 40 years. He strives to capture the unique essence of the human spirit and regularly teaches at his studio where he passes on his gift to others.  Gary Lee Price lives in Springville, Utah with his wife and five sons.

Come sit next to Monet!  Share a bench with the man whose 1873 painting Impression, Sunrise became the inspiration for the name of the artistic movement called Impressionism.  He is awaiting your comments on the visual art exhibit in the Harrington Gallery, inside the Firehouse Arts Center.  What say you?

Jan Coleman-Knight