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Yuri Schwebler: The Spiritual Plane

Presented by the Alper Initiative for Washington Art
Originally scheduled June 13-August 9, 2020
Curated by John James Anderson

This exhibition was cancelled to contain the spread of COVID-19 in 2020. 

View the online exhibition

Read the exhibition catalog online, featuring essays by curator John James Anderson and Benjamin Forgey.

Gallery Talk: Yuri Schwebler - July 16, 2020

Curator John James Anderson and AU Museum Director & Curator Jack Rasmussen discussed The Spiritual Plane for our Museum@Home series on July 16, 2020.

Yuri Schwebler, Magnetic North, c. 1971-2.

Yuri Schwebler, Magnetic North, 1971. Public artwork. Image courtesy Yuri Schwebler Archive, Salem, NY.

Yuri Schwebler, Fifty Fifty, 1978.

Yuri Schwebler, Fifty Fifty, 1978. Ribbon slate, aluminum I-beam, stainless steel cable, brass plumb bob, turnbuckles, dimensions variable. Image courtesy Hudson River Museum archives.

Yuri Schwebler, Six Sculptures Between Numbers 3 & 4, 1976.

Yuri Schwebler, Six Sculptures Between Numbers 3 & 4, 1976. Stainless steel poles, stainless cable, lava rock, dimensions variable. Image courtesy Hudson River Museum archives.

Yuri Schwebler, Giacometti's Table, 1981.

Yuri Schwebler, Giacometti's Table (Where Painting Meets Sculpture), 1981. Yuri Schwebler Archive, New York City, New York.

Yuri Schwebler, Dix Xwith view of the Eiffel Tower, 1977.

Yuri Schwebler, Dix X with view of the Eiffel Tower, 1977. Courtesy Enid Sanford.

Aerial view of Yuri Schwebler’s Sundial, by John Bowden.

Aerial view of Yuri Schwebler’s Sundial, showing the 1974 finished piece. Photograph by John Bowden. Courtesy of Ben Forgey.

Yuri Schwebler, Pyramid, 1974

Yuri Schwebler, Pyramid, 1973. Cast aluminum and plumb bobs, 12 x 12 x 96 in. Courtesy of Paul Richard.

Yuri Schwebler, photo by Mary H.D. Swift.

Yuri Schwebler, Washington, DC, 1981. Photo by Mary H.D. Swift.

Yuri Schwebler, Pyramids, c. 1974.

Yuri Schwebler, Pyramids, c. 1974. Sand, plywood, brass plumb bobs. Installation inside the atrium of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Image courtesy Yuri Schwebler Archive, Salem, NY.

Yuri Schwebler, Concept Plan for The Great Pyramid Transplant, c. 1972-74.

Yuri Schwebler, Concept Plan for The Great Pyramid Transplant, c. 1972-74. Mixed media on paper. Courtesy Enid Sanford.

Yuri Schwebler (1942-1990), the artist who transformed the Washington Monument into a sundial in 1974, posited that art moves through three planes: the mental, the physical, and the spiritual. Thirty years after Yuri Schwebler’s untimely death, this memorial exhibition will revisit the various threads of his indelible conceptual works that operated in a space exploring the birth, death, and rebirth of ideas.

Contact us to purchase the exhibition catalog ($15 + sales tax).