Fragility and Resilience: Sculpture by Stephen De Staebler

Sep 2, 2012 - Dec 2, 2012 | Snite Museum of Art

Snite Museum of Art
September 2–December 2, 2012

Stephen De Staebler's clay and bronze sculptures depicting the human figure juxtapose the frailty and transience of individual lives against the remarkable resilience of mankind. Their forms are rooted in the ruins of classical sculpture, memorial stele, and architectural friezes. That is, classical sculpture's defiance of absolute decay became De Staebler's metaphor for mankind's yearning for connection to eternity—our shared quest for transcendence.

The exhibition features two bronze and twelve ceramic sculptures. One sculpture is from the permanent collection of the Snite Museum of Art and the remainder are kindly lent by the Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago.

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