Shapiro, Jöel
(Nueva York, 1941)
Joel Shapiro (New York, 1941) is a prominent figure of the twentieth-century American sculptural scene. Since 1970 he has been creating pieces which, whether suspended from the ceiling, related to the wall or presented on the floor, reconfigure the space in which they are installed with his iconic vocabulary of simple geometric forms.
As a teenager, Shapiro attended painting classes at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He subsequently enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder but a year later switched to New York University, where he studied fine arts. Between 1965 and 1967 he lived in India as a member of the Peace Corps. On his return to New York, he embarked on his career as a sculptor. His first solo show took place at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1970 and included early examples of the anthropomorphic sculptures that would become hallmarks of his creation. In 1974 he started teaching sculpture classes at different universities in New York. By 1977 his work was beginning to acquire a more figurative form, and he continued in this vein throughout the 1980s. Working with a variety of materials, such as wood, bronze and steel, in 1980 he started making larger sculptures. With close ties to minimalist and constructivist principles, his work is also infused with a distinct architectural spirit. Among other accolades collected during his long career, Shapiro was awarded the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 1986 and the Award of Merit Medal for Sculpture from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1990.
