8/27/03

BRASS SCULPTURE 'SPINOFF, 1998' INSTALLED AT AU MUSEUM

SPINOFF, 1998

AUBURN -- Acclaimed U.S. sculptor Jean Woodham on Wednesday oversaw the installation of her 11-foot high brass sculpture, entitled Spinoff, 1998, in the gardens of The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University.

Woodham, a 1946 graduate of Auburn who now lives in Westport, Conn., donated the piece to the museum in memory of her parents.

"Spinoff is an important addition to the permanent collection of the museum because it establishes the precedent of acquiring world-class outdoor sculpture as a component of our collecting mission," said Catherine Walsh, the museum's curator of exhibition and registrar. "Visually, its height and curves complement the straight lines of the building and gardens creating a stunning approach to the entrance."

Woodham, 78, a native of Midland City, Ala., left for New York City after graduating from Auburn to further her education in the art field.

WOODHAM

She worked in clay, plaster, stone, wax, wood and steel, becoming one of a few Americans welding metal sculpture. Woodham learned to cast work in bronze and aluminum, create varied patinas and even developed innovative welding methods

In addition, she learned to cast work in bronze and aluminum and developed several innovative welding methods.

Woodham was one of the first artists to apply methods developed from industry to create monumental outdoor sculpture. Unlike many of her contemporaries, who create a model and then entrust the final development of a piece to industrial fabricators, Woodham translates her models in her own Connecticut studio.

"Before I begin to create a certain piece, I tend to think in terms of form and space before consciously thinking of a concept," she says. "Only in hind sight do I realize what idea has saturated me and then the concept begins to crystallize."

The inspiration for Spinoff came from watching the national news and recognizing the frequency of companies buying out other companies, she said.

"It seems as though companies are our national product these days instead of manufacturing or agriculture," says Woodham.

In making the preliminary sketches for Spinoff, Woodham used a compass to draw a circle and developed a form with everything spinning off the center. "This type of spin off happens not just in business, but in life itself," she said.

Woodham has had numerous one-person exhibitions in the United States and abroad. Her work has been in exhibitions at such major museums as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Aldrich Museum; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; the Albright-Knox Gallery; the Cooper Union Museum; Smith College Art Museum; Bennington College; New York University; National Academy Galleries, New York; the Sculpture Center, New York City; the Whitney Museum and the Wadsworth Atheneum. More than 150 of her works are in public and private collections.

Her sculptures are included in the corporate collections of the General Electric Credit Corporation-Epcot Center, Nynex Corporate Headquarters, General Telephone and Electronics Corporate Headquarters and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development-World Bank.Woodham's work is in a large number of private and public collections which include The Foreign Art Museum in Sophia, Bulgaria, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the Massillon Museum, the Westport Permanent Collection and the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences.

One of her most impressive works, the soaring 19-foot Monody, stands outside Goodwin Hall on the AU campus.

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aug03:AU-spinoff

CONTACT: Haden Brown, 334/844-1582.