Tempio Bretton, in Peruvian yellow travertine, pays homage to the celebrated Capability Brown, a well-known English garden designer. It was made specially for the occasion of an exhibition at Bretton Hall in Yorkshire Sculpture Park--a park laid out in the style of this master. Garden follies were often constructed to mimic the ruins of classical temples. The works were sited in the landscape to form a focal point in the greenery and to indicate a depth of space, while also presenting a relationship between an historic past and present surroundings. Dusenbery's aim was to reduce the stone structure in scale to the point of where architecture and sculpture merge. In 1987 Dusenbery received a commission to create a temple complex in stone, incorporating ceremonial and performance areas, fountains, pavilions, and more, for the Fulton County Government Building in Atlanta. Prior to that project, he was commissioned to make works for public sites in Dallas, TX; Bellevue, Washington; Cedar Falls, IA; and Portland, OR. Early in his career, Dusenbery was an assistant to Isamu Noguchi. Dusenbery is represented in collections at museums such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Laumeier Sculpture Park and Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and others in the United States and in Denmark, England, Israel, and Portugal. Reaching twenty feet in height, Walter Dusenbery’s Damascus Gate stands as the frontage portal to Grounds For Sculpture and has become a symbol of entrance into the celebrated sculpture park. Designed and built of travertine stone- a hard, sedimentary rock found at the bottom of stream beds-the arch stands as an emblem of art and of history. The title is reminiscent of the important gate in the wall surrounding old Jerusalem facing the ancient city of Damascus. The original Damascus Gate was built in 1542 by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent. The gate has two towers each equipped with machicolations or areas where stones could be dropped through the floor at attackers. The gate is located at the start of the Arab bazaar and marketplace. Delicate and soft in the surrounding low haze of Giant Blue Wild Rye, the sculpture is a distinctive part of the Grounds landscape in its massive weight and gesture. Walter Dusenbery was Director/Supervisor of the Stone Division at the Johnson Atelier, located adjacent to Grounds For Sculpture off Sculptor’s Way. He is one of the founders of the Digital Stone Project, which is located across Sculptor’s Way and is one of the only facilities of its kind in the United States. Other works by Dusenbery installed in the sculpture park are Haystack (1977), in Italian tufo; and Damascus Gate (2002), Porta Stazzema (1979), and Rocchetta (1983), all in travertine. More information on the artist can be found at http://www.walterdusenbery.com/. | | 
Tempio Bretton, 1981
yellow travertine
120" x 40" x 40"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
Photo: Malgorzata Mosiek 
Damascus Gate, 2002
Scabas travertine
240" x 176" x 51"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
Photo: Ricardo Barros.com |
