University Museums

Title: Bond
Name: Metal Sculpture
Date: 1986
Medium: Metal (nickel, silver on monel metal)
Country/Culture: American
Dimensions: 70 x 32 x 40 in. (177.8 x 81.3 x 101.6 cm)
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Gift of Barbara and James Palmer. Iowa Art in State Buildings Project Hoover Hall.
Location: Iowa State University, Hoover Hall
Object Number: U2002.3
More Information
Seymour Lipton's reputation developed in the 1940s and 1950s as a sculptor associated with the Abstract Expressionist School. Except for his early career, when he worked in carved wood, Lipton’s medium was metal, especially a type that he began to use after 1955, called Monel metal, which is lightweight and easily cut. His work is characterized by sharp, spiky, craggy and aggressive shapes with a roughened surface. His subject matter usually echoes in immediate post- war themes of emotional intensity: despair, aggression, ferocity and alienation. By the mid- 1960s, however, his work was affected by the changed atmosphere of the art world toward a more minimal style.

Throughout the remainder of his life, Lipton's sculpture continually became simpler, steadier and less aggressive in its emotional impact. Overall, it had fewer and less complicated parts and the spiky forms nearly disappeared. He continued to work directly with metal and rarely used castings. Each object was still the result of a careful and deliberate process, which included detailed drawings and metal maquettes. Lipton's work was always highly interpretive and metaphorical as seen in "Bond," which is almost lyrical, bordering on elegant. Bond Bond depicts abstracted and stylized hands holding a scroll of human knowledge. Created as his last sculpture, Bond continues the artist’s dedication to the human figure, and as seen here in heroic dimension.